2022 - It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? And we’ve only barely entered in.
Well, it’s a new year at least, not sure how much different any of us are feeling. We’re almost through January, which is a relief. Making it through January always seems like such an accomplishment because it truly is the worst month of the year. Unless you have a birthday or anniversary in January, what good is it?
Seriously.
What’s vexing to me about January is the concept of “starting fresh in the new year” things we see on social media, like it’s the new lent season or something. Resolutions, new gym memberships, “Dry January” is a thing now. It seems to me that, if you drink, January is the month that drinks are necessary. Anyway, these things are annoying to me because we can literally make these changes at any point throughout the year. For some reason, we seem to think that particular month has a particular sort of magic to it.
January ain’t got that magic.
Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t have goals for ourselves. We really should be setting more goals than we usually do. Even more, we should be working hard to complete those goals.
One way to be resolute about the changes we want to make is to recognize that within ourselves, we already contain the ability to make it happen. We don’t need a special month.
It’s a new month, in a new year and every new day still starts with every one of us making a decision on how we are going to individually approach that day. Visually, it’s easier to imagine a big picture of the changes we want to make, what those results might ideally be. It’s much more difficult to actually painstakingly paint that picture, the intricacies of each detail, the minutiae of each moment that no one but the artist will notice.
A friend of mine reminded me today of how important it is to not pine for the greener grasses of “the other side”. It’s really another form of a New Year’s resolution when you think about it. — “If I just had that… then this will be better” — The grass could be better, but in order to achieve and maintain that green grass, work has to be put in. It doesn’t just happen. You have to rake the dead grass, fertilize, water and cut. Even then, these steps don’t guarantee results. You may have to repeat the process a time or two.
You can get that gym membership or decide not to drink alcohol in January, but nothing will change if you haven’t assembled a new workout regimen or created new challenges to expand your brainpower.
Personal growth isn’t free. It doesn’t happen when it’s convenient and when everyone else is doing it. It’s not always popular or the “in” thing. You may lose friends too. Honestly, that growth we crave can be painful.
January is almost over, thankfully.
If you didn’t make a resolution on January 1, that’s okay, that day is symbolic but it isn’t magical. Every day holds that power for you.
Resolute
Thanks for your thoughts James. In our family we pick a word that expresses our focus on the new year, like present, intentional etc. This year is Gratitude. Looking for the small things in big world to be thankful for. I am thankful for you and your thought provoking words.