Well 2015 will soon be coming to its end, opening its doors
to a new year ahead, to 2016.
A new year brings with it the idea of all kinds of
possibilities and wonder. What will happen in the next year of our lives? A new
chapter. This brings me to the idea of New Year resolutions. Why do we make
them? What is it about beginning a new year that urges us to seek change? Sure enough
a new year presents a clear date from which to begin our change, it also
presents the idea of a new beginning, a fresh start, but along with the new
year a certain pressure arises that this year must better than the last, that
this year ahead will bring with it everything that the previous year did not,
and that we will work harder, play harder, exercise, save more money, and achieve
what we did not, for whatever reason, in the last.
How many of us have made New Year resolutions in previous
years? Do we stick with them? Are we making them for ourselves or for other
people? This is an important point which applies to many aspects of life, if we
do something for ourselves then we are more likely to see it through, it is
when we start doing things for others or for the wrong reasons that plans can go
awry.
Of course change can happen at any time of the year, but it
is often the significance of an event which drives us, not necessarily a new
year, perhaps a birthday, or even a death; it is often these landmarks in our
lives which make us ask ‘am I living my life the way I really want to?’
I am currently reading The Schopenhauer Cure by Irvin D
Yalom, in the book there is a sentence in which a person suggests that we
should live our lives in such a way that we would be happy to repeat the same
life eternally, how interestingly thought provoking! How many of us would
genuinely be able to say that we would be happy to live our lives exactly the
same, with no changes, over and over again and again?
That fact that we seek change, we continue to better
ourselves, enhance our knowledge through work and education, that we hope to earn
more money suggests to me that the majority would not be thrilled with this
idea, that we would welcome the opportunity to live again to right the wrongs;
to have another chance at it, to learn from our previous experiences; to do it
better. But we can learn, we can use our experiences of the years past to start
afresh in this New Year ahead, and whatever it is which motivates and drives
us, we can strive to live a happy, if not necessarily better life.
Whether you choose to make New Year resolutions or not, I
hope that you all have a happy new year. Will I be making any? I strive to be
more organised in my work, is it a resolution? Not really, more of an ongoing
aim! I’m a great believer in SMART goals! My only goal for 2016 is to be as
happy as I can be, I don’t think that this is too much to ask?!
