When a new year comes to a close, we begin compiling a list of things we want to have a fresh start on. This list is fondly known as our "New Year Resolutions". Now many people view these as a joke that make you feel good about the beginning of the next cycle of life we call a year. Many people resolve to exercise more, take up new hobbies, meet new people, travel different places, and do things with their lives they didn't think they could do until the year started over. But that's not really why we have them.
We plan and wish and try to stick to these new resolutions to determine what we want in life. How fitting for our finished cycle around the sun to spurn us to wonder why we don't reach for the stars on a daily basis. It's a time old tradition to define your new year in a theme or reoccurring idea. Even if you know you may not ever try ordering something new at Applebee's or using that treadmill for something other than wet laundry. Even if you know that after the fireworks wear off, you will not stick to the goal you set of traveling to new countries. You won't like the taste of kale shakes after a month, and you may become sick of the new friends you've sought after in a pale promise to yourself on New Year's Eve.
So instead of making a list- or resolving to do things you aren't doing right now- that you will continue to "not do" until the morning of January 1st, do them right now. It's December 26th and you've got many years until it's time for a new routine.
New year resolutions are great for a time to take out all of our half baked ideas and faded dreams. They help remind us to dust off those past versions of ourselves with maybe brighter futures or better friends.
Every year, once the joy of Christmas has settled, we enter a period of nostalgia or reminiscence- a juncture to reassess what we really want. But while it's good to really think about what we want for the new year, sometimes you can't look at the next week or month as a week or a month. You look at it as a collection of days that are nearest to your current self and you start whatever you need to start right when you decide you want it.
So go out for a morning walk. Call your sister right after you finish reading this. Do this and finish making that before 2017 gets here.
A new and better life does not start when the clock hits 12. You can't just suddenly be the person you want to become without working toward them and understanding that you will make mistakes along the way. A more outgoing, interesting, talented, fit, relaxed, or whatever version of yourself begins to form the moment YOU decide to change or rearrange.
So enjoy your New Year Resolutions that you may never do anything about, or decide that you shouldn't wait to do something because you will keep finding a way to continue ignoring it. I've seen people turn their attitude around in June, or October. I've begun new, positive habits all throughout this year.
If you know someone who struggles with sticking to good habits, and they make crazy New Year Resolutions every December, you can do something to help. Support them. When your best friend says they want to start exercising or finally open that restaurant they've been talking about for years, listen to them. Let them know that you believe they can do it, and that extra surge of support rather than "You're never going to actually do it" will mean the world to them. I have a feeling this new goal is going to be the best journey yet.
