5 New Year Resolutions 2021 to a Woke and Progressive Life : Alma Chopra
BEST NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS FOR 2021
New Year resolutions are an annual tradition with all woke people in the world today. If you don’t make them, you may end up with FOMO.
Studies have shown that less than 25% of people actually stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days, and only 8% accomplish them.
While these numbers could invigorate you to keep your resolutions a little longer than 1 month, I want to give you a set of life lessons that will last you a lifetime if learned and understood once.
These life lessons (or Resolutions for 2021), in this case, will be about being more inclusive, accepting, and open minded in life. I want to emphasize that these learnings can and must be exploited on both your professional and personal fronts to reap the maximum benefits out of it. Trust me, you will start seeing immediate results.
So let the masterclass begin.
1. BE WISE ABOUT YOUR CHOICE OF LANGUAGE
Have you ever tried to use Google Translate to translate anything? If so, you would notice that it automatically assumes that you are a male and will use the grammar accordingly. Hello! What in the world!!! I have even suggested the improvement to them and await a response.
However, you could be better than then. Have you ever used sentences like – ‘’Don’t cry like a woman’’, ‘’Fight like a man’’? Well, now don’t. These statements and gender types are redundant. Men have emotions, and this is a separate blog altogether, and I will address it someday. Do not assume that you need 2 ‘men’ to do the job; a better way of saying this would be a 2 member crew or a 2 member team, right?
2. PRONOUNS
Address the elephant in the room. Gender fluidity is real, and many people specifically like to be addressed with a pronoun of their choice. Be mindful of this. If you do not know, it is best to ask. Be receptive and open to what you do not know. If nothing else, you will learn and speak about it in your new-found next lunch conversations and sound totally woke.
It is a sensitive topic and needs dignity and acceptance.
3. TALK LESS. LISTEN MORE.
For a layman, it just means stop making assumptions for someone else. I could enlist thousands of quotes on effective listening, but it is probably the most challenging habit to change or cultivate at the end of the day.
“I love listening; it is the tone of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time.”
– Nayyirah Waheed
Isn’t it one of the best descriptions of the power of effective and attentive listening? It would help grasp more, open your senses, and allow new perspectives to form.
Try it.
4. APOLOGIZE IF YOU MESS UP.
I cannot stress enough this. We’re all human, and they say to err is human. Even with all this new-found wisdom and discretion, we can all falter now and then. We can have our good days and bad days, we can suffer from extensive mood swings. All of that is okay. What is more essential for us is to stand tall and apologize with humility and kindness (without snides) if we mess up.
Learning is a gradual and continual process, and we will get there eventually. Today take one day at a time.
5. BE SENSITIVE AT WORK AND PUBLIC PLACES
When we meet people who are different from us, physically or otherwise, it is nice to be sensitive to them – whether they are disabled, financially less privileged, or of other ethnicity or caste or even sexual orientation. Kindness would cost us nothing. It would just make us better and more empathetic human beings.
Whatever the social set up may be – personal, social, or professional, remember to always be sensitive to the difference you have with someone. That is the key takeaway from this blog.
Respect the difference.
Having said that, I hope all of you have a great New Year.
God bless us, everyone.