What have you done?

12 months of 2010 have passed like any calendar year, and the New Year has just started. Each individual would have had his/her share of joys, happiness, progress, disappointments, sickness, e.t.c. in the past 12 months. Each person looks forward to 2011 hoping for betterment in life. It is for this, that New Year greetings are exchanged, among friends, colleagues and relatives. It is natural to hope for betterment and seek positive and good things in life. But few people care to see what efforts they have done for improvement of self and or people around them. Every individual is a unit of a family and families make up a society or community. Hence progress of individuals will help in overall improvement of families. This will in turn aid in betterment of a community which will develop a nation and make it strong. Therefore, it is imperative for each person to make efforts for progress and development in a positive way. End of the year and beginning of a new year should also be a time for introspection regarding work. If one has been successful in work, he or she ought to make efforts to maintain it and progress further. If there have been failures and setbacks, the cause or causes should be analyzed. Strategy should be formulated for rectifying the causes after due consideration and counseling from well wishers if needed. Individual health, both physical and mental should also be assessed. Does one feel as fresh and energetic as before? Does one get irritated easily over trivial issues? There are no problems regarding appetite and sleep? These are issues which should be considered while evaluating one’s health. Any habit negatively influencing health, like smoking or alcoholism, should be consciously given up as a New Year resolution. Make it a point to spend some time with family and friends everyday howsoever busy you are. Warm and loving human relations provide much mental relaxation which is very beneficial for positive growth of an individual. One should aim to learn something new in the New Year. One may be very intelligent and skilled. But doing the same work daily and maintaining the same routine makes life pretty dull. Learning a new art or skill for leisure time, breaks the monotony and stimulates the mind in a positive way. Reading is a very good hobby in this regard which can be nurtured. Charity is one activity which is useful not only for the needy, but also for the person doing it. Charity provides a sense of peace and deep contentment in the individual doing it. It augments one’s self confidence and improves the personality in a positive way. Therefore one should aim at starting some charitable work. This can be in cash or in kind. One may donate cash or material to some needy person or some institution caring for the needy like an orphanage or destitute home. Another kind of charity is helping a needy person with professional help for free. Like a lawyer can help a poor person fight a legal issue, without charging fees! If each person does a small amount of charity regularly, it will make a vast difference to the well being of the society in general and will make the world a better place. Thus if every individual makes some efforts for improvement in self and the world around him, many problems of the world would be solved. Peace and prosperity will reign in and it will truly be a, “Happy new year”, for all. rachna212002@yahoo.co.uk