Stop Eating Sugar

“Good resolutions are like babies crying in church. They should be carried out immediately.” 

~ Charles M. Sheldon

Happy New Year! I hope 2013 has started off on the right foot for you. I am sure by now many of you are well on your way to completing your first month of holding fast to your New Year’s resolution. Others of you are thinking you’ve only missed a hand full of days and you still have time to get back on track and keep your resolution throughout the rest of the year. Still, others of you have already given up on making a “major” change in your lives and resorted back to the same ole, same ole.

I am not one to make resolutions. I never keep them. I also have never been a fan of making a new “plan” each year that will only last 365 days. If I want to make a change, I want it to last much, much longer.

I am not sure where I picked up the notion, but I have always regarded the word and idea of a resolution as being permanent. Just as the founding fathers “resolved” to form a new union, a new order and a new America; to me, a resolution should be a change that will stand the test of time.

Dictionary.com defines a resolution as, “theactofresolvingordetermininguponanactionorcourseofaction,method,procedure,etc.” It’s a plan of action that should take a long time. It should be a principle for the duration of your course. It’s not just something you say, it is something you DO. It is something that has meaning and compels you to make a permanent change.

According to Wikipedia, people have been making resolutions at the beginning of the New Year almost since the dawn of time.

The ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts.

The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.

In the Medieval era, the knights took the "peacock vow" (a pledge of nine historical, scriptural and legendary personages to personify the ideals of chivalry) at the end of the Christmas season each year.

Many Christians attended “watch nightservices”, (a late New Year’s Eve church service which was an opportunity for Christians to review the year that had passed and make confession, and then prepare for the year ahead by praying and resolving with resolutions).

There are other religious parallels to this tradition. During Judaism's New Year, Rosh Hashanah, through the High Holidays and culminating in Yom Kippur, one is to reflect upon one's wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer forgiveness.

People may act similarly during the Catholic fasting period of Lent, though the motive behind this holiday is more of sacrifice than of responsibility, in fact the practice of New Year's resolutions partially came from the Lenten sacrifices. The concept, regardless of creed, is to reflect upon improvement annually.

I am all for self-improvement, but I think it should be a result of mental and emotional reflection, not just because a giant crystal ball dropped in New York (or a Moon Pie, Catfish, or what have you).

As I have been thinking of New Year’s resolutions, I am reminded of a story I once heard about a great leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Not only was he a great leader because of what he said, he was a great leader because of what he did. His actions followed his words.

The story goes something like this:

In the 1930's there was a young boy who had become addicted to and obsessed with eating sugar. His mother decided to get help and took the long and hot journey with her son walking many miles and hours under the scorching sun. 

She finally reached Gandhi and asked him to tell her son to stop eating sugar; it wasn't good for his health. Gandhi replied, "I cannot tell him that. But you may bring him back in a few weeks and then I will talk to him." The mother was confused and upset and took the boy home.

Two weeks later she came back. This time Gandhi looked directly at the boy and said "Boy, you should stop eating sugar. It is not good for your health." The boy nodded his head and promised he wouldn't. The boy’s mother was puzzled. She asked "Why didn't you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here to see you?"

Gandhi smiled and said "Mother, two weeks ago I was eating a lot of sugar myself."

This isn’t exactly a New Year’s resolution, but the point is the same. Gandhi knew his own action of eating a lot of sugar was bad for his health. But, he couldn’t just tell the boy to resolve to do better. Gandhi knew that he too had to make the life-changing decision to change his own habits so that what he said would be of more merit because of his actions.

How closely does what you say as a leader in our community align with what you do? Have you resolved to do something you don’t think you can follow through? Are others watching with anticipation to see if you drop your New Year’s resolution so that they too can drop theirs? What about members of your family, your church or you civic club?

My hope for Jones County in 2013 is that we all eat a little less, exercise more, stop drinking and smoking so much, save some money, do kind deeds, spend more time with our friends and families and get better organized; through all of these resolutions and the host of others that I am certain you will all keep, I pray that our community will be better because of it.

May we all be better leaders as we lead by example this coming year. 

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* This article was originally printed in the Sunday, January 13, 2013 issue
 of The Chronicle's "Planting Seeds" column.