Fresh starts are healing. Should a wound wait to be treated or should it be cleaned immediately?
Hitting reset pushes the past away and gives us momentum to move in the right direction.
Setting a boundary between ourselves and past failures or shortcomings doesn’t need to wait for New Year’s Day. It can happen on December 26, on a Thursday, or a Merry Un-Birthday.
New weeks and months carry a grander sense of beginning again, which our minds intuit as clean slates. Instead, what if the moment we decided to start over was that fresh slate?
Fortunately, the only thing standing in the way of starting over right then and there are our sweet little brains.
New Year’s motivates more goal setting and personal reinvention than any other time of year. Fallen behind on healthy eating over the holidays? Haven’t touched a book in months? Been phoning it in at work? Just wait for January. All bad habits dissolve away on New Year’s Day, right?
We are what we surround ourselves with. Becoming inundated with the potential of “newness” as the year comes to a close triggers a psychological switch saying, “Now’s our moment.”
There is nothing wrong with the little boost New Year’s gives to goal setting. It only becomes troublesome when we’re looking for it and it isn’t there.
When the gap between old and new habits closes, we have the choice to push them apart right away. Whether it’s January 2 or April 5, just stop, breathe, and start over.
This doesn’t mean going back to square one. Chasing goals is a process. One step back does not negate the days, weeks, or hours of effort put in.
Remembering failures is a survival technique. Remembering success is a gift. This is why it can feel like a month of wins is one step forward and a single mistake is 10 steps back. And why we have to wait for a proper new beginning to wash it all away.
“New Year, new me” is a myth. No magic transformation happens between December 31 and January 1. What motivates a new beginning is the desire for change.
Mornings, Mondays, birthdays, and New Year’s are excellent catalysts for starting over. They’re tools to foster the desire to change.
What if we could view a new inhale as a new beginning? If at 2:07 pm we decide not to wait for morning, and instead we stop, breathe, and start over. What couldn’t we accomplish?
Essie Somma is an artist and freelance writer exploring beauty and difficulty within the human experience. She has been traveling full-time for two years, learning about new places and cultures, and bringing all of her experiences to her work. She feels endlessly grateful for getting to share her work with others.
