Dedicated to Those Looking for a Serious New Year’s Resolution

Are you looking for a serious New Year’s resolution to stick to? (Whom am I kidding when New Year’s resolutions are not remembered beyond January?) Everyone means well when they start off the year; it’s about working out, cutting the unnecessary sugar (again, whom am I kidding, what is ‘unnecessary sugar?’), becoming punctual and more organised, reducing the intake of alcohol and being more focused on their careers or education, but all of these get blown in the wind because they don’t become habits.

I am not about to pour into a long winded, complicated write up about the etiquette relating to New Year’s resolutions (I doubt that such a thing exists). Instead, here is my prompt to you for the year 2023 to make etiquette habitual. One of the first ever articles that I wrote on etiquette, titled ‘Is Etiquette a Must?‘, deserves to be recalled to remind all of us why we need to pour our hearts and souls into this irritating business of being mindful of others; minding our p’s and q’s; putting others before ourselves; thinking of the greater good; sharing public spaces wisely and practising good manners even when no one is watching.

On that note, let me prod all the resolution buffs about making etiquette habitual. You don’t need to hit the gym five times a week for this, you don’t need to cut down on your carbs or your sugar, you don’t need to burn the midnight oil cramming for an exam that your mother forced you to write and you most certainly don’t need to stop surfing the net to make this resolution work (but by all means, please do go ahead with all of these as well). Instead, day in and day out, while you lounge on your couch, roll around in bed with your phone, meander on the road, go to work, answer the doorbell and shop at the neighbourhood fruit stall, you take tiny measures in your words and deeds to make politeness your style, finesse your middle name and good manners your signature.

Here is to a year full of etiquette!

Photo by Polina Kovaleva: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-notebook-on-the-table-5717420/