Honestly, I like New Years’, not because it represents some sort of new beginning, but for the hot cocoa with peppermint and the gathering of people I barely saw the previous year to have a night of staying up late playing video games and gabbing on about relationships. It’s all the rage. Before you ask: I’m not macabre in my thinking and consider, “I’m a year closer to death.” (My apologies for brining this up, I just finished reading an interview with Tom Ford talking about death; the article is interesting...a tad sad though).* My reasoning for not thinking of such a grim topic in such a time of merriment is that it’s pointless, we all know that’s technically true and I could explain why it’s bogus (same reason I’m not huge about birthdays). Yet, that’s not what this article is about.
You see the title and maybe you think, “smart man”, others may be thinking, “he must not want to improve”, or you could have the same thought as my friend and think, “he doesn’t want to fail”. Actually, I am quite alright with failing at certain things because that’s where I learn. One of a million goals in life is to constantly improve (not consistently because I don’t believe it can be consistent). As for being a smart man….I’ll let you determine that.** No, the reason I don’t do New Years’ Resolutions is because I don’t feel the need to wait for a new year to decide what to improve upon in my life. If I were to set the New Years’ Resolution to talk less, I would’ve failed ten times over. Sporadically I try to talk less, throughout the year in pockets of time. Why should I wait for the New Year to fail at my goal? Why not just do it in August and get it over with?
Also, throughout the full year we’re facing new challenges (I’d hope, if your ideal year is no challenges and little to do, my apologies) that we may or may not have foreseen, we are placed in predicaments that none of us could guess would occur. Sometimes life grabs you by the ankles and tries to suck you down to its’ level. Maybe if I choose a goal it’s very broad so I can still focus on a million other things, but I’m not a fan of choosing goals. Perhaps part of it stems with my birthday being so close to the New Year and I choose a super broad goal for the age year at the time (like, very broad).
You don’t need to wait for the New Year to try to improve upon yourself, you don’t need the turn of the Gregorian calendar to decide, “I want to lose weight” and we certainly don’t need the calendar to read 2017 (or whatever year it is) for the first time to decide it’s time to move to London and start a bespoke suit shop. Heck, I don’t need a New Year to choose to start a book. Life doesn’t wait for the New Year. Why should you?
*- Article is explicit, there’s your warning.
**- If my writing is coming across as sarcastic, I was in the midst of a sarcastic streak while writing this.
