joel marion (dot) blogspot (dot) com
My name is Joel. This is my Blog.

Friday, January 13, 2006
on being resolute
Okay, having essentially dissappeared for the last little while, I was recently compelled to reflect on the only new years’ resolution I made this year. Now, I generally view resolutions on the same level as voodoo, horoscopes, and pet rocks… it’s quaint and fun until you start to take it too seriously. With that in mind I set out not be one of those whose lofty ambitions barely make it any longer than their hangovers. And so in a quiet reflection I decided that the one thing that would benefit me the most this year, something I could keep in mind as a conscious effort to self-betterment, is to be more honest with myself and others. Of course, you’re thinking, honesty is a virtue. It’s something we all value as much as the next. Why the big deal, joel? Well let me tell you. Those things that we value are usually held in high regard because they’re not so easy to uphold. As much as we say that it is one of our principles, how often does it get lost in the tradeoffs of daily life in favour of some other, small concession?
Take a second to reflect on that.
how often does honesty get lost in the tradeoffs of daily life in favour of some small concession?
Now there are a few responses to this question: denial, of course, from the high and mighty faultless who’d throw stones at jesus himself in the mind of their own purity; acceptance of the “inevitable” from those, like many or most who feel that life is a burden with which we cope by whatever means necessary, and minimize guilt under the umbrella “I did my best”; And then there are those who consciously strive to self improvement by entrenching such values deeper into identity.
What does it mean to be honest with yourself and others? To me it’s primarly about being more responsive to the world around me, about reflecting on the state of things as they are by recognizing even that which I don’t want to believe. It’s about being willing to learn, being willing to be wrong, to fail, to be weak, because it is only by being able to see these things that we can become stronger. It means disposing of any notion of invincibility, of righteousness, of superiority. It also means taking credit where credit is due, taking advantage from one’s strengths, and ultimately working towards one’s goals with a more solid footing. It means knowing why I think and do what I do, and being willing to defend that. It also means not being caught off guard by those things that I’ve repressed and hidden until they could no longer be kept from unpredictably impacting my life.
So here’s a toast to being able to say “get your head out of your ass” and “go ahead, take your best shot.”