As the new year begins, so does the creation of countless lists of resolutions, and this idea has left me pondering the concept of time. The tradition of a New Year's Resolution sweeps through the country every time December 31st approaches. We enter a new beginning chasing new aspirations. But really, they aren’t always that new. They are the same things we said we wanted to do last year, but didn’t get around to. So January 1st offers us a second chance, and we pack those first days full of all of our best intentions. Sometimes the promises we make to ourselves are something small and simple, like working out more, or drinking more water. And sometimes we make bigger plans, tell ourselves that this will be the year we travel the world, or move to a different city. Whatever it is we toast to as the clock strikes midnight, the idea behind waiting until the new year to start something is peculiar.
Why is it that we wait until the year is over to figure out we wished we would have done in it?
I used the new year as a time to reflect -- to think about all of the wonderful things I achieved in the past year and contemplate the things I didn’t do but wanted to. And as the new year began, offering me a clean slate, I decided to make my New Year's Resolution to stop making New Year's Resolutions.
I hold firmly to the belief that I should always be chasing after what I want.
Time moves swiftly, and there is no reason to wait to strive toward a new goal. I want to get to the end of a year and have no new resolution -- have nothing I feel like I could have done but didn’t.
It is important to remember that most negative feelings are temporary. Fear is temporary, disappointment is temporary. Letting those things stop you from attempting new things, or making major changes, is the only way you will ever really let yourself down.
In the past year of my life, everything I thought I wanted changed. Every aspect of who I am was challenged, altered, redefined and re-solidified. I decided to not let anything hinder my happiness. And that decision led me to lose a lot of things. I let go of a lot of people and places that I once thought I could never live without. And in the wake of a little destruction, I learned the importance of rebuilding. Every day was filled with a new way to stay true to the same resolution, and that resolution was to do whatever it was that made me happy. I ended up moving to a different state, and then moving across the world, and I had the most influential year of my life.
As this next year begins, I hope to live it in the same fashion. So when the clock strikes midnight next time around, I can relish in the fact that I have nothing I left undone. Just because Julius Caesar decided that the new year was going to fall on January 1st doesn’t mean you owe him any loyalty. Use every day as a new opportunity to begin again.
Cheers to the new year -- and all the ones after that -- and please always toast to the idea that you should never postpone your joy. Your life isn't waiting to begin at the start of each year, so I hope you aren't either.
