The first day of the year possibly warrants a blog post. It's going to get one whether it's actually warranted or not.
I have never been one to make New Year's resolutions. I have never been good at goal setting and feel I will just disappoint myself when (not if, but when) I don't meet my goals. Maybe this is my depressive personality, maybe it's a pessimistic personality. Maybe it's a realistic personality. I've never been able to really work that one out, and I don't really care what it is. It just is.
So I'm wondering today whether my avoidance of New Year's Hope and Resolutions suggests I'm a Fatalist? There's no point in setting goals or plans because experience has taught me that Life happens whether we plan it or not, that when things happen completely out of left field we have to adjust everything to continue with life. And what of our plans then?
I remember hearing that Life is what happens while we are busy making plans.
So why not short-circuit the process and just Live Life? Save all that time making plans, setting goals and then having to adjust them when other things happen.
I am being a bit tongue-in-cheek. I do have some flimsy plans for the year, some vague idealisation of what I hope the year brings and what I hope to achieve and experience.
"Good riddance to 2013, Hello and welcome to a big sexy 2014"
Surely you don't want to say good riddance to ALL of 2013 though. Even in my most annus horribilis's I have had good things to remember as well. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
Difficult times during a year would be great to erase. However, I wouldn't be the person I am today without the crappy times and experiences I've had. So to erase those things would be to erase part of who I am. Why would I want to do that!?
2014 might look bold and bright and sexy today. But so did 2013 on the 1st January 2013...... So do we set ourselves up for disappointment to hold such high expectations for a new year? Should we perhaps only allow ourselves to remember nice, positive, heart warming memories from each year? Should we expect and look forward to the struggles of the new year so that we can be even bigger, better versions of ourselves at the end of 2014?
I have settled in a head space of accepting what has been, and accepting what will come. Today carries the same hopes, disappointments and challenges as yesterday, and tomorrow, and next month, and next January 1. Why put so much pressure on one day of the year?
Enjoy the public holiday.
Love the people around you.
Move away from the people who don't nurture your journey, if that's what you need to do.
Face the sunshine, but appreciate the shade. Life is full of both.
