New Year's Resolvations
2025 - a year to focus on the process
I must admit, I do like making words up.
It probably winds a few people up, seeing language so callously treated; all for the quick, cheap thrill of grabbing readers’ attention.
Of course, I could apologise; but I wouldn’t mean it.
For someone who - in referencing their work - has consistently made such a big deal out of “telling stories without words” (eye-roll), and overcoming previous misadventures with song-singing, one might think I would be a far less linguistically stimulated individual.
The truth is…I love words.
Not language, as such (Lord knows, I am terrible at all foreign languages), nor grammar, even (though rogue apostrophes do wind me up something proper).
I have what I would describe as a passing interest in etymology and the evolution of language and dialect, but I have never studied it - the furthest I got academically in this area was taking the first year of an English A Level, until Chaucer did for me, and I retreated to the warm comfort of Music and Film.
Many of you, I know, have cottoned on to what, I assure you, is a genuinely deliberate approach to the use of language and words in the way I present my music, not least in relation to the titles of my pieces, works and projects.
Whilst that may not seem wholly unique - indeed, that would surely be the case for many creatives across disciplines - it is something I spend time thinking about quite deeply, and I’ve written about it in more depth previously:
Such a preamble could only truly be performing one role: namely, that at the beginning of a New Year, I am hereby rejecting the notion of the New Year’s Resolution, in favour of an approach - coined, I’m sure, by myself and myself only - as New Year’s Resolvations (yes, there are red dots underneath that word on my screen).
Being honest, I have always tended to view New Year’s Resolutions with a strong amount of scepticism and weariness. All the “New-Year-New-Me” guff; the determination to “hit the gym”; the well-meaning, but ultimately flawed “this will be the year” statements; and spending the darkest, coldest, bleakest month of the year consciously avoiding the nicest drinks in an act of self-flagellation just feels so…well, dull.
However, I must accept, in another recent post, I did eulogise at great length about seasonality, and so, to remain consistent, there must be some acknowledgement on my part that the beginning of a New Year does admittedly bring with it a sense of reflection and thoughtfulness about what is to come in the next period of time we have determined as the unit we call YEAR, and the ways in which we might like to alter elements of our lives.
It is in that context, then, I should like to propose the very slightest shift away from New Year’s Resolution as the means by which we do this, in favour of embracing my new favourite term: New Year’s Resolvations.
I know this is slightly semantically susceptible, but my understanding of the difference between ‘having resolve to do/achieve something’ and ‘finding a (satisfactory or otherwise) resolution’ is that one is a process, whilst the other is an end point; a full-stop; the end of the line.
In 2025, I think I need to resolve to be more present - not just to be more aware, “in-the-moment” and less attached to my phone, but to be fundamentally more present, in the tense sense.
I can be SUCH a moper to do with things in the past, holding onto things I really should have gently let go years ago. Conversely, I can be SUCH a worrier about the future.
So, rather than type out a list of things which will likely be unachievable the moment they are conceived, and holding myself to unrealistic and unreasonable expectations I would never expect of others, I want to remind myself:
It’s in the doing,
the making,
and the being.
The process is key.
A lot of this chimes very much with this article from early last year…
And what of you? What do you reckon? Am I barking up a very wrong tree, or is this the start of a new movement?
What are your New Year’s Resolvations?
Let me know.
p.s. Happy New Year
You might bet that I'd pen a reply(!)
You've hit on the absolute fundamental though - 'process'.
I've been in the process of trying to 'learn' piano (and keyboards more generally) since 2021, and am glad that I have given in.
Not given up, but given in the 'the process'. I learn with a well know on-line tutorial web site, which, ad nauseum, but correctly, tries to temper your ambition (and with it your inevitable frustration), with process based learning.
Follow this, relax, just follow. It will come. Nothing worth doing is easy is a adage I like. In this respect, I have followed the process, and each time I do so, I learn something valuable. Whether a new piece, or just a technique (muscle memory is a magical thing when seemingly subconsciously hitting the right keys!)
This has served me well, (although in my music reading, not so much!!), and brought a tremendous amount of satisfaction.
Thus, yes, in reply, I'm generally in agreement!!
Oh, and I have no NY Resolutions - I prefer to resolve to do stuff at any other time of the year.... :-)