The year 2021 has ended.
It was, understandably so, a year of many unprecedented occurrences, and I don’t mean that in necessarily a positive way. The year was absolutely horrific for a whole lot of people.
This year also saw a lot of people stepping closer to realizing their dreams, realizing themselves, moving a step ahead on their journey in life.
But this post isn’t about the last year specifically.
No, this post is about the concept of a new year in and of itself, inspired by a conversation I had with my best friend a while back.
Why DO we celebrate the New Year with such pomp and aplomb? Why does the world collectively decide to celebrate the natural passage of time? What makes us go out of our way to do what we can to feel nice about ourselves at this rather particular point in time?
I’ve come across two camps of people regarding to the above questions:
- On one side, you’ve got the cynics. Those who’d share memes depicting how apes are celebrating a lump of rock completing a revolution around a star, those who believe that time is a man-made construct, and those who’d tell you that if you truly wanted to change yourself you wouldn’t really need a specific moment in time.
- On the other, you’ve got those who’d spend days looking forward to this event, those who’d happily make plans to be with their loved ones, or those who’d simply want to do something special for themselves on this particular occasion.
In other words, the contrast between these two camps couldn’t be clearer. Neither of these camps are better than the other, and this is strictly a non-judging blog. You do you, whatever floats your boat.
Now for the longest period of time I used to think that I belonged in the first camp. I wasn’t quite so cynical, but I didn’t think a person needed to look at a calendar and mark a date to, say, start going to the gym. I couldn’t quite understand the absolutely massive hype behind NYE plans; to me they simply seemed like an inconvenience. After all, is the new day going to be different from a day in the past year?
Fast forward to 20212 and I’m not quite sure what camp I belong to, now. I am slowly beginning to grasp the power a reset point has on your psyche, a point you use to cut out the clutter to focus on what truly matters to you. People use reset points on the regular, sometimes without even knowing what they’re doing. A stopwatch can be a reset point to get your workout routine in order. A trip to the wild outdoors can be a reset point to clear your head; simple breathing exercises can achieve the same.
What is the first day of the New Year, if not a massive reset point, not for your day, but potentially your life?
A few years back in college I’d worked on an assignment covering the power of crowds on human psychology. It doesn’t take a genius to imagine the impact a reset point on a global scale can have on your psyche. I’d go so far as to say it’d be damn hard for you to resist change when you see everyone you know around you celebrating potential change in the lives.
Yes, you can get up in the morning on, say, 2nd April and decide to lose a few kilos of your bodyweight. You are absolutely capable of meeting that goal, but now, I believe that you’d have more resolve setting a major personal goal when you see the broader public doing that on a global scale. Millions and millions of people vowing to reach better versions of themselves; countless goals reaching out to you through your screen.
The collective potential of everyone is unbelievable every NYE, and I think we’d do well to tap into this vast pool.
So.
Onto my personal resolutions for the year.
- I need to get out of my comfort zone. I have been in it for too long, and it is high time I break the mold I’ve created for myself. Meeting new people, seeing new places, trying out new things I’d never have done in the past.
- Be more appreciative of people who check up on you, because not everyone is lucky enough to have them. I am truly, eternally grateful for those who care enough to ask me about my day.
- Work on my people skills. I don’t want to go around telling people I’m awkward, and use that as an excuse to quiten up whenever someone I don’t know so much as looks at me. If I come across someone interesting, I’m going to say hi and talk to them, even if it’ll only be a few messages. I’ve missed too many boats now.
- Physical fitness. I’m not an 18 year old anymore. Fitness now is fitness later.
That turned out to be a bit longer than expected, which brings me to a resolution I have related to my writing. I want to be able to write regularly, instead of writing only when I feel like it. I want to be able to put my ideas down on paper at a whim instead of only when I’m feeling particularly inspired. Additionally, I am acutely aware of the need to bring some semblance of structure to my writing (and my life too).
That’s it.
Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks for reading. Stay safe, be kind.
