New year's resolutions: What Tribune bloggers hope to do

As we exit 2012 and say hello to 2013, The Express Tribune blog desk decided to ask some of our bloggers to send us their New Year's resolutions. Below is a collection of these amazing, inspiring, quirky and fun resolutions by our writers!

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Lemn Sissay:



My new year's resolution is...to connect. Disconnection is necessary for a writer for whom the storm is best observed in the calm of its eye. But this can lead to enforced isolation and no calm at all.  People are like unpredictable weather and I need to be with people to experience what happens as storms pass and the sun shines, the rain falls and evaporation occurs. I need to be more open- more vulnerable.

I grew up with no family, with no one. I grew up hard but I have hardened myself. It's crept up on me with age. I need to resolve that I shall not be defined by my scars, but by the miraculous ability to heal.

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Jamaluddin:



On this new year's day, I resolve to pursue all avenues that are available to raise my voice against persecution of minorities in Pakistan. Also, since I am an information systems graduate from Australia, I promise myself to spread awareness of knowledge management in Pakistan through blogs. As an overseas Pakistani, I would strive to create a better image of Pakistan and take part in efforts to promote universal peace and harmony. I also resolve to sincerely follow the Quaid's work ethic of "Kaam, kaam aur sirf kaam" (Work, work and only work).

May Pakistanis follow the guidelines of the Quaid-e-Azam rather than the Quaids of our political parties. Amen.

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Abdul Abid Majeed:



I vow to work towards highlighting and improving the condition of public healthcare system in Pakistan in my limited capacity. I vow to raise my voice to spread awareness about the conspiracy theory culture in Pakistan. I vow to spend more time in volunteer work and helping young people through the ideological difficulties they are facing currently.

I hope and pray that the coming year will be better for me and for my beloved country than the present one.

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Ayesha Pervez:



Since a few weeks, I've started focusing on becoming the best that I can be (as a person). I've started giving way to drivers, smiling at seniors, complimenting people more often (on their qualities) and withholding myself from criticising others, (and instead focusing at the positive in them). This way, I'm hoping to cancel all my wrongs by doing more what feels "right" and obtain some good karma as a result.

Like they say, do good and good comes your way; that's also a part of the plan. Thus my new year's resolution is to make up for my shortcomings with more and more (little) good acts.

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Amyn Malik:



Now that the Mayans have gotten it wrong and the world is not ending, I can start thinking about my new year's resolution. Keeping them is not my cup of tea, so this year I will make a resolution to not make any new year's resolutions. Let's see if I can keep this one come December 2013.


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Faraz Talat:



I, for the eighth year in a row, vow to make myself less 'gravitationally challenged' by losing 20 pounds. Though this resolution has failed before, I feel things are going to be different this upcoming post-apocalyptic year.

*cough* fat chance *cough* Who said that? Every person I've ever known. Three cheers for new beginnings, fellas!

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Tayyaba Hassaan:



In 2013, I strive to be ‘normal’. Talk less. Listen more. Bounce less. Glide more. Scream less. Take a deep breath, more.

Be diplomatic. Be borderline hypocritical, get a filter fitted between your brain and your mouth, preferably in your throat. Make sure the filter also has a built-in system to bring your volume and speed down. Cry less. Laugh more. However, do not laugh like you are possessed by the devil. Learn a pretty laugh; practise it in front of the mirror. Write more. Sleep more. Love more. Squish your kids more. Worry less. Plan more. Be spontaneous, less. Give more. Spend less. Do not curse. Ok sc*ew that, curse less or die trying. And if you succeed in half of these, reward yourself by finally jumping out of a plane. Good luck!

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Jahanzaib Haque:



My new year’s resolution is to look beyond the information-laden, media-intensive bubble I live in. I want to be free of my computer screen, tablet screen, mobile phone screen. I want my view to be 360 degrees and not need 4GB RAM to run. I want to walk in the grass and exit ‘work mode’ long enough to access those part of my mind I locked shut some time ago.

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Atika Rehman:



I don’t mean to sound like a mareez, but I realised in 2012 how unhealthy my lifestyle is. I have fallen ill at important dates, like during a holiday and also during my best friend’s wedding, and have been cursing myself for it. So I hope to spend 2013 being healthier; this means a balanced diet and at least four hours of yoga/pilates/aerobics a week. Here’s  to a happy, healthy 2013!

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Amna Iqbal:



The year the world was supposed to end…

I make a ‘things to do today’ list every day. The list is possibly the one of the most useless things I do. When you work for a newspaper, the lines between today and tomorrow get blurred. There is no such thing as tomorrow. This holds true in so many ways – I live in a city where you step out for a cup of tea and a stray bullet will take away all the plans you had made for tomorrow, a bomb may go off and your dinner plan for day after will be up in smoke, your place of worship will be torn down and the prayers for your exam result a month later will be buried under the rubble.

When you live in a world without tomorrows, new year resolutions become as useless as the list I make. They rob us of the importance of living today. So here comes the oxymoron – My new year resolution is not to have any. To live today.

However, I want so if the world ends tomorrow, I would have at least checked one thing off my list.