NEW YEAR, SAME ME
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s the sun sets and concludes the final chapter of 2021, and dawn ushers in the first moments of 2022, there is one emotion uniquely felt amongst the vast majority of humans who are consciously aware of the concept of a new year, and that is hope.
Many cultures celebrate the new year with all sorts of excessive parties. Although Covid-19 put a stop to the massive festivals, it did nothing to the smaller and individual celebrations throughout the globe. There is something very appealing about starting a new chapter and many turn this new page with positivity, and indeed, hope. Hope for a better year. Hope for a better life, a new job, a proposal, a baby, a new car, etc. Hope is fresh. Hope is exciting. The new year brings feelings of starting over, forgetting the heartache and the stress of the previous year, and the prospect of being a brand-new version of yourself. New year’s resolutions are thrown about as we promise each other, but more importantly, ourselves that this year, we WILL do better. We WILL go to the gym, we WILL lose 6 kilograms, we WILL work harder, we WILL stop gossiping, we WILL make more money. And how wonderful it is to set such positive and high goals and standards for ourselves! How wonderful that once a year we check in with ourselves, identify what went wrong and what was not achieved, and reset, wind back the fishing reel, aim again, and cast ourselves far and deep, with renewed hope that this year, THIS YEAR, is our year. “365 new days. 365 new opportunities.”
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Alas, it does not usually work out this way, does it? The 1st of January is a day quite similar to the 31st of December, scientifically speaking. Human beings classified time and according to our calendars, this signifies the new year and we plan our entire lives around this concept. The idea of something new is enticing and we desperately want to keep up with the times, so we cling to the new year in a frantic attempt to not be left behind, and as a result, we make these resolutions without any consideration or logic to what we have just proclaimed. And more often than not, we fail. We do not achieve said resolutions, with many of these goals being abandoned early on already. Yet, come the eve and end of 2022, we will start sprouting up our usual nonsense, with 365 days having passed without us learning a thing. Why do we put an unrealistic amount of pressure on ourselves to attain these wild goals? There are no fixed rules that a new year means new promises, yet we do it anyway. Goals are not simply wishes upon stars. Goals are only achieved when supported by hard work. There should be a small amount of logic and planning attributed to each resolution so boldly proclaimed. This does not mean not to dream big, but rather – plan to achieve your success instead of simply stating something you would like to do in your life. How, though? A popular approach used to attain goals is a friendly acronym known as SMART. S – Specific, M – Measurable, A – Achievable, R – Relevant, T – Time-bound.
