January 1st. Arguably the one day out of the year where so much hope rests on its shoulders. And for what? To realize that by March 19th you’re even worse off than you were on December 31st? I mean, I completely understand why this day is chosen to be the first day to put positive goal-oriented resolutions into play instead of the other 364 days. New calendar, new life, yeah, yeah. I get it. But why wait until one particular day of the year? Wouldn’t any day be a good day to take a chunk of life and mold it exactly how you want it?
Admittedly, I sometimes fall into the trap of believing a new year is a good reason to make some changes. I haven’t the last few years- this New Years included- but I have made my resolutions in the past, only to watch myself slowly and methodically neglect them while I inched my way back into old habits. The mindset then becomes, “Well, it was the thought that counted. I’ll try again next year… in 8 more months.”
So this year, no resolutions. In fact, this year I’m just going to leave everything as they are, cluttered, and see if I can work my way back to uncluttered. No need to quickly clean up. After 35 years it’s obvious I can’t start fresh and keep it that way so why not work with what I can do? Hell, I can clean up messes. I’ve been doing that since I learned how to change my own underwear. When people ask what I think my biggest strength is, I reply with, “Taking a pile of shit and making it art.”
Having said all that, I do believe that making New Years resolutions and sticking to them for an entire year is an art, and one that I am not skilled at. So I have respect for those that are able to accomplish goals that took flipping the page of a calendar to come up with. I guess I just don’t understand why it took you all year to come up with it.
Maybe I’m just overly conscious of myself and my surroundings that instead of being able to let go for the year and enjoy myself, I spend all year worrying about what is wrong. You see, I have these more-complex-than-they-need-to-be thoughts in August, too.
