Each New Year brings the new opportunity for a fresh start to our lives. Many promise to make changes in their lives through self-commitments known as New Year's resolutions. However, very few people keep their commitments, even though they make them privately to themselves. This process of making resolutions usually enters the pattern of double standards to which we have all become victims as humans.

Once someone makes a commitment to change their life, they begin with strength, in the resolve that they will not break their resolution. However, as time proceeds, one or two commitments appear too difficult to keep, and then slide away, as though they were never that important anyway. When someone has a very firm resolve, they will actually succeed in keeping at least some of their New Year's resolutions, especially if they make some that are easy and not too important.

When you look at how we have all been raised by our families, in our societies and as inhabitants of this planet, it's not surprising that we give up so easily. As children, we are victims of ongoing double standards that are set by our parents, which give conflicting views as to how to conduct ourselves. Children are often subjected to such conflict that it is hard for them to process the information that adults throw at them on a daily basis. When one parent teaches that their child should think, react and behave in certain ways, and the other parent continuously disregards and breaks that pattern, confusion begins and the child develops problems in deciding how to think, react and act when confronted with various decisions in their life. This pattern continues into adulthood, where the problems have developed into emotional, health, personal and financial problems.

Our society is no better, when it comes to exhibiting double standards to the population. Nowadays, most cultures have been infiltrated by the benign lechery of religion, which cuts off the thought processes that a person would normally develop about the universe that we live in. Governments are established that start off with the best of intentions, not unlike New Year's resolutions, and their promises quickly dwindle away into the corruption and scandal that most nations face. Fear has become the cornerstone of security. Where once happy-go-lucky children and families could enjoy their lives, now they are haunted by the ever-present likelihood that they will be attacked by someone from another religion or culture. World governments look the other way while war, famine and disease continue to destroy innocent people who are the victims of the greed and power of those in leadership.

Many people who make New Year's resolutions fall short of their commitments to themselves. That's no surprise, when you look at how we have all been let down by our parents, our society and by the custodians of our planet - ourselves. Our planet is so overpopulated, more separated than ever by wealth and on the brink of such environmental catastrophe, that there seems to be no solution in sight. No government or international body is willing to take the steps necessary to stop the environmental slaughter of our planet. Is it any wonder that anyone would bother to make a single commitment to themselves that would improve their life?

During my life, I have always made commitments throughout the year, on any day, at any time. The resolutions that I have made to myself are ones that I firmly believe in, and that I see as propelling me through my life, based on the principles of the Light and my own desire for knowledge, prosperity and longevity. Through my work with children and adults alike, I have seen the confusion that has resulted from the double standards to which they have been subjected. When I point this out to children, they are quick to understand, and begin to voice their disapproval to their parents. However, most adults have been so conditioned by the double standards that they have dealt with all their lives, that they are unable to break free of their conflicting thoughts, emotions, actions and reactions, without a firm, unrelenting commitment to do so.

As this New Year starts, let's make 2007 the year that makes a difference. Let's all make commitments to not only ourselves, but to our spirits, that we will improve our own lives and make our world a better place for our children!

Leo Jean
31 December 2006