Petrarchive – Resolutions - They're coming

Have always hated the idea of new years resolutions even as a pretentious kid. If you can't start on it at any time what makes this one special? It's for people who drink alcohol and have bad hangovers after all the partying, seems like.

>>8240
You're right, and it would be nonsensical to limit resolutions to the new year. That said, I find that if I don't dedicate a moment to think about my life in the long scheme, some years it might never happen because I get lulled/deluded by the day to day rhythm. That's the whole point of tradition imo: it's ridiculous, but it has a usefulness as a last resort.
So, this is a small place to think about it, it might prove useful.

Okay, I resolve to stop posting on Petrarchan so often

I want to be more tidy and keep my spaces clean

>>8240
Not wrong, but I don't think having a certain time for reflection and intention making is necessarily wrong. Think of it as a sort of festival.

>>8244
I'm glad others make use of it but for me personally it is more than useless, it hinders my betterment. I find it much more practical to take random, nondescript moments to ground and recenter myself and take focus of what I want to improve.

>>8240

Absolutely baby-brained thinking, so of course this is the top reply on our august board.

"Occasion" exists, numbskull. The Greeks called it "kairos." There are contexts in which original commitments/challenges appear more clearly, with greater distinction and solemnity from ordinary circumstances. When serious people (unlike you) make promises or give assurances, they want to be heard clearly, and so they choose to share those in special contexts. Even secular people get married in courthouses, as opposed to on the bus. There's a difference between saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of a ballgame and saying it on the toilet. If you don't see the difference you are a bloodless, spineless nematode.

I want everyone who reads this dimwit to recognize the fruits of nominalism. It's all fun and games and Baconianism until stupid twits like this start believing that things like wedding vows are merely psychic events.

>>8249

Why are you so mad at my reply? The whole thing is a charade from actual unserious people who need their "occasion" to remember things. That's why everyone rolls their eyes when the January wave of people shows up at the gym. Is it not ridiculous that the entire economy of whole sectors depends on peoples' inability to do anything new other than being spurred onto it by their New Year's resolution? Can we not agree that a typical resolution like "I want to quit drinking" is important enough to not be confined to action after one day in the calendar year?

You twisted my critique of a specific once-a-year event into talking about literally any repeated action ever, or every once-off event like wedding vows, neither of which I had in mind when writing my comment. You were in such a hurry to show off the three Greek words you learned in college that you flew by the point of this thread entirely.

Also,

>Pledge of Allegiance

If South Asians spoke like this you would clown on them endlessly for it.

>>8247
I suspect age is a factor. The relationship to time changes quite a bit, and it does slip more easily later in life (also because the projects become longer. They require different tools to keep track of them.), making these agreed upon moments crucial.
And I guess modern life is doing its best to maintain us in an endless flux of highs and lows surrounded by shelves of solutions with a price tag.
I do like to get a few days off work and the world at the end of the year just to meditate and journal. I usually come out of it with a clearer view of myself and the years before/ahead.
>>8253
>>8249
Come on now. You're both choosing to believe people thinking differently is wrong and getting mad about it. It is a peculiar way to go through life and not even good trolling.

>>8247
>it hinders my betterment.
I find this attitude unusual, because you say that NY resolutions are for normies who don't typically self-reflect or self-start (and thus you are unaffected by the occasion), but somehow NY resolutions *do* affect you, only in a negative way in which you are unable to self-reflect.

>>8272
Yes, if I let myself rely on a set time of year to improve myself I procrastinate and become complacent. This includes New Years resolutions but also birthdays and so on. The only way around this is to ignore traditional temporal markers and keep myself in check at any time. I also personally don't like these annual events as constant reminders of how much I haven't done, how much I haven't accomplished, how much I've suffered under the yoke of life and other people; the unbearable and yet unavoidable passage of time. When I remove myself from these regular reminders I am both more productive and happier.

>>8253

I dare you to find someone who you want to marry and then propose to them while taking a fat dump. I'm sure your beloved will appreciate that occasion is a charade.

>>8257
>"people thinking differently"
Again, the fruits of nominalism. Everything is a merely psychic event for these slime-molds. There is no right or wrong, no truth, just "thinking differently."

>>8277

Wisdom nuke

>>8278
> Everything is a merely psychic event for these slime-molds.
what does this mean?

>>8278
The absence of public judgement doesn't mean there isn't any. A fortiori when it would be of little use for everyone involved.

Hopefully I spend less time on 4chan (the only reason I'm here is because I'm genuinely too retarded to pass the new captcha). I also really need to get a job but even fucking McDonald's wants a resume and I'm a sheltered shut-in with no experience so I've just started making shit up at this point. One thing I've learned this year is that ultimately your parents and the other people close to you will let you down and sabotage you harder than any stranger will. I plan on taking this knowledge into the new year and start relying on others less for happiness. This should in theory also make me resent them less when they end up inevitably disappointing me. A flip side is that I also won't be able to blame them anymore, once I decide to take full responsibility for my lot in life. Another cool thing I've come to realize is that ultimately you can do whatever you want as long as you're willing to pay the price (whatever form it takes). That people thinking negatively of you for acting in certain ways doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad person, that it's just the price you pay for being true to yourself. Seems obvious but like I said I've been raised to prioritize others over myself even though those same others don't give a damn about me the second I stop people-pleasing. If their love is conditional on me being a mirror that reflects them then I don't want that love. That one Ben Franklin quote about people who sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety is something I'll take with me to help decision making.

Frankly, I am just about done entertaining thoughts about one being in control of their life to anywhere near enough extent to set some sort of resolutions. I do not mean to dissuade any of you from this, and there is noble intent behind that, but personally after all the failed attempts at changing myself I am embracing external locus of control to its fullest, for better or worse. All this rumination about self-control is at the end of the day historically fairly new train of thought. For most of our shared history our ancestors had no illusions: their lives were playthings of higher powers of one kind or another kind, and everything they knew and cherished could go up in smoke any moment, after all for most of the history one bad harvest was enough to do just that to most societies. It is ridiculous that as the world as gotten systematically more complicated we started some deranged cult of self-determination. Would be more rational to go back to giving offerings to Jupiter and Isis, far as I am concerned

stop drinking and lose weight

Mine are the same as last year: learning to let go, become what I am, read, write, and the usual trivialities (more this, less that).
>>8285
>ultimately you can do whatever you want as long as you're willing to pay the price (whatever form it takes)
The freedom that comes with this understanding is the best.
>>8682
Some changes take a long time (+15 years). Not seeing the results a few years in doesn't mean you have zero control.
But you're right: the human being as a project is a pretty new thing, and coupled with the optimization craze, it's insanity at a cultural level.

I tend to think really abstractly about everything, and I suspect that's why I feel so disconnected from life. To try and solve this, I'm going to keep a journal about real things that happen in my life, and my feelings about them.

>>8253
>Why are people mad?
Because you're a sophist.

>he's so mad he's a nematode

>>8292
It looks like a good idea.

Either AI is programmed to blow smoke up my ass or i've been having this plan to wake up from neet slumber and lead a campaign of certain world conquest which i put together one tiny piece at a time

>>8310
Why not both

>What is that defect you are getting rid of in 2026?
too much ego, not enough change
>What is the version of you you expect to become one year from now?
someone who has undergone some sort of revolution

>8311
yeah balloons need air to go up but they can explode and fall back down to earth or more realistically tip to the side before even taking off and end up ridiculed by everybody

>>8313
>Being ridiculed == The End
God forbid you'd have to try and fail before you succeed.

>>8314
i have tried and failed repeatedly i think it takes a toll

>>8315
It does get easier, I swear.

>>8316
yeah it's a function of minimizing emotional noise both from inside and outside

Going to have a daughter in June. Between now and then I will have to rewire my brain to become competent, manage my own finances, determine what it is I would like to do for the rest of my life for money, develop creativity and turn myself into the positive role model that she will need for a father.

I am loved in my life, but certainly suffer from a case of arrested development, impulsive short-term thinking and an inability to manage my thoughts and goals. Some days I feel like an inert lump of mass saddled with unnecessary debt and despair, incoherent in my own thoughts and actions. The only reason I can pretend to be a fully developed human is because my more successful wife helps pay the bills. Other days I feel like all of that is its own form of narcissistic delusion, that the rest are just as or more incoherent and are lying when they talk about their credit card situations. Either way, neither person is who I want my child to have as a father.

My resolution is to start going to the gym more.

>>8325
Congrats

>>8327

Thank you, I'm genuinely very excited and hopeful about my future.