New Year’s Resolutions
The well-known time when we count the last seconds of the year 2020 is steadily approaching and many of us are thinking about the past year and our experiences more than usual.
Have I done enough? Have I used up my every last second? Am I proud of how I survived those past 365 days?
These and some other questions we ask ourselves, wondering if we’re the only ones. The amazing party that we managed to attend (although it’s very unlikely this year) is suddenly the emptiest place in the universe. The noise is unbearable and you want nothing more than to be at home, snuggling underneath a blanket on the couch.
Or you already are at home, sitting with your family or friends and sharing your New year’s resolutions while finishing the Christmas sweets.
Maybe it has happened to you before, that when it was your turn to speak, or you just gave the idea of what change would be good in your life a thought, you panicked. Everybody has various aims, measured and planned to the last detail, and you didn’t even think about it…
The majority of people that happen to be in a similar situation just hastily thinks of something popular and socially acceptable, like: “I will start working out,” or “I’ll learn Spanish,” or “I’ll redecorate my living room.”
Yes, all of these goals are fine, and they will move you forward in life. They all depict a positive change and personal growth, which, as we have established more than once on this site, is welcomed and healthy.
That doesn’t mean that those aims are suitable for everybody, and that they are suitable specifically for you. If the given resolution didn’t come from your heart, it will be useless to even attempt to maintain it.
We are not always ready for a change, and we don’t always need one. The New Year doesn’t necessarily have to mean a new beginning, new habits, new personality. It doesn’t matter what marketing tricks are companies, influencers and, of course, fitness coaches (and trust me, there’s nothing more intrusive and stingy than a muscly dude, who’s trying to get you to the gym with aggressive threats) trying to imply to you. You don’t need a change if you don’t feel like having one. You don’t have to force yourself to make a decision that you wouldn’t have to make otherwise. If you have a resolution that you have really thought about and intend to fulfill, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for you. And if you decide in the middle of July that you will start living healthy and start right then, you will not be any worse than anybody who had started in January.
Besides, four out of five new year’s resolutions end up forgotten by the second week of February, but no one that was so hyped and full of themselves will boast about that.
That’s why you shouldn’t think about what you didn’t manage to do, and focus on what you are proud of instead. It can be a new job, a change of diet, time spent with family or good results at school… it can also be getting up from your bed every day and choosing to fight, to simply live. We have gone through a strange period of time, when the time had stopped and we had to get used to a completely different way of living. If you find nothing else to be proud of, there’s a suggestion.
Instead of dreading the New Year because of changes and expectations from our surroundings to change something about yourself, welcome it like a new sheet of paper in the book of your life. What you write on it and how you will continue is entirely your choice.
It is said that your year will go how its first day went, so just make sure that you are feeling calm, relaxed and don’t worry about the future that you can’t influence anyways. If a change should come, you will be ready for it, even if it’s not on the first of January.
