Only Human

The whole concept of a New Year’s Resolution is for a positive outlook and optimism — hoping that the untrodden year to come will bring nothing but joy and happiness. But when you look back at the 365 days you’ve just experienced, what do you remember? My best guess is it’s probably not all joy, some of it might’ve been downright dreadful, but that’s awesome. At this point you’re probably wondering to yourself why this kid just told me the worst part of my year was awesome, and that’s not what I meant (I promise!). What’s awesome is that you’re human. Imagine a whole entire year of your life where nothing bad happened… you’d never appreciate the little things and would always want more. If you were to ask me, that doesn’t sound very gratifying in the slightest. And sure, having anything bad, depressing, melancholic, glum (whatever you want to call it) happen is not welcome but it surely helps you grow. Whether it’s a death, a breakup, a loss of any kind, it’s never going to be fun, otherwise, we’d call it fun!

Lemonade

So, let’s try this: over the course of the next 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,765 hours, 525,948 minutes or 3.1 million seconds, just think of bettering yourself. Again, you’re probably finding yourself drifting your thoughts as to why I am telling you exactly what a New Year’s resolution is, and it’s completely reasonable (I do in fact have a point!). Better yourself by accepting life’s lemons and making a hell of a lemonade. It’s inevitable that something will come up that you weren’t expecting, suddenly altering your routine or even disrupting your anticipations, but it’s what we make out of those disruptions that’ll bring the joy you vowed to resolve in this rejuvenated time.

More Mindfulness

Sure, we’re all still going to try to hit the gym more (aka go two or even three times this year), lose weight, and go on grander and more extravagant adventures, but realistically these goals will slowly drift out of the “Goals Section” of your brain into the “To-Do List” part and eventually settle into the small dark “Oh Yeah, I Forgot About That” part. Just start small! Over the course of the year my goal is to appreciate more, the small little victories and memories, as well as my family and friends, appreciating their best and worst qualities and everything in between. Better yourself this year by being mindful of the present. If you counted all the times you caught yourself thinking about the unknown future or the fixed past even in this young year your head would hurt (but not as bad as your New Year’s Day hangover). Thinking of the “now” instead of the “what if” will lead you to listen more and enjoy more. For this New Year’s Resolution, I don’t have a resolution, just the mindfulness to appreciate more and better myself and the world around me. I’m going to try my best and get back to you in December. Happy New Year.