​How can we expand our resolutions from time-bound to lifelong?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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detachment, you cannot go in, you cannot just stick to a predefined plan, if somebody decides I’m going to fight with sword but the enemy is attacking with bows and arrows, you cannot keep fighting with swords, at that time you have to shift to bow and arrow because that is the way the attack is, war is going on, so like that when we are dealing with the mind, we can’t go with a fixed plan, this is what I’m going to do, our purpose may be fixed but how to persuade the mind, how to work our way with the mind, often we say the mind is our enemy but it’s like the mind is an enemy the way Pakistan is an enemy for India, what that means is India has to live with Pakistan, so like that we have to live with the mind, so even if India drops a nuclear bomb and eliminates Pakistan, we cannot drop a nuclear bomb and eliminate the mind, the mind is going to be there, so when we have to live with the mind then what will make the mind work, what will make the mind accept things, that can vary from time place circumstance, so what I have found is that changing the area of resolutions, that means if I decide for one month I’m going to focus on my chanting, then the next month I’m going to focus on my scriptural studies, next month I’m going to focus on my relationships, whatever it is like that, so when there is some change, the mind also doesn’t feel too much burden, I have to keep doing this, keep doing this, keep doing this, and that way because the mind also needs some freshness in things, so when we change like this and if we keep improving various things in our life, so after 5-6 months we come back and again focus on the chanting, then whatever we have done earlier, it may not be at the same standard, so if I have gone from 60% to 90% during my month of resolution, after I come back, but I will come back to 65%, 63%, 70%, something will remain, and I will improve on other things also, and when I come back again I can move forward from there, so we have to see what works for us, so changing the area of resolution helps, another thing that helps is also trying to do a resolution with somebody else, usually one of the best ways to make resolutions work is to have resolution partners, that means somebody else is also doing the same thing which I am doing, or something similar, then we meet each other and we remind each other, I have done this, I did this today, will you do it, so if we have a close friend with whom we can be open in the sense that they are not going to judge us and laugh at us if we don’t do it, but they are going to understand us and help us, then sticking to resolutions becomes much easier if we have a partner, and then we both pick each other up, and also in resolutions we need to keep some room for ourselves, or rather room for unpredictability in life, that means say, if I decide I am going to read the Bhagavatam everyday for one hour, sometimes life is so hectic I may not be able to do it, so what we need to do is instead of making it, I will try to read one hour everyday, but if not I will read for 7 hours in a week, some days I may get more time, I can read more, or I can make it 30 hours in a month, so we can create some room for manoeuvring, sometimes if we make the resolution very rigid and strict, it may work for some people in some cases, but life is too unpredictable, so if we make a very rigid resolution and it doesn’t work, then we become so disheartened that we don’t make any resolution only afterwards, but instead of that we keep some flexibility in that, we give ourselves some working room, some elbow room as they say, then what happens is we feel even if I am not able to do this, I will be able to do this, so basically while dealing with the mind, we have to find the strategy that works, rather than making a rigid resolution, we can take that rigid resolution as a principle and translate it into a workable resolution as per the nature of our mind, does it answer your question?