New “Day’s” Resolution

Do you make New Year’s resolutions?  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.  I find that I usually don’t do too well with them.  I go good for maybe a couple of months and then gradually fall into my old habits again.  Not that I really have any bad habits that need breaking, but there’s always room for improvement right?

I think what the problem is is that I’m not much for setting goals in general.  Now, before you judge me and label me lazy and aimless, let me try to explain…

First of all, my real “New Year” is on my birthday.  That’s the date on the calender I consider that a new year of life begins for me, and that is when I think about where I am and where I’m going; what changes I’d like to make in my life,  call them”goals” if you will, but I don’t really look at it that way.

People are all different and at different places in their journey, so it stands to reason that there are many different strategies that one can use for self-improvement.  For some, I suppose making New Year’s resolutions may be just the thing they need to spur them onto greater things, onto a better way of living and being.  But for me… I need a deeper meaning than just a date on the calender to motivate me and to help bring about real change in the areas of my life that need it.  Otherwise it just feels inauthentic.

Don’t get me wrong… a new calender year is a perfect time for reflection, for looking back, looking forward, and so on.  I am quite often aware of various dates on the calender throughout the year that hold special significance and cause me to contemplate things in my life, and New Year’s is no exception.

But I have found that I’ve been changing over the past few years in the way I think about things.  Maybe it’s because the rug of my entire world got pulled right out from under me in one big swoop, but I tend to now look at each new day as a new beginning, and I set out each day with “resolutions” of sorts.  Going too much further into the future just seems impractical to me.  We are not guaranteed a tomorrow; let alone a next week, next month, or next year.  All we truly have is today, right now, this moment.  We can make our plans, our “goals,” and some of them might succeed, but in the end we don’t really have any control over the outcomes.  We like to think we’re the masters of our own little mini universe of our lives, but the control we think we have is all just an illusion.

But I do have this moment, this day, right now, and I can make a “New Day’s Resolution” to live it in the best way I can.  And aside from all of the stuff in my life that I should consider changing (fill in the blank), as I simply purpose in my heart to live each new day with joy, with love and with gratitude, I truly believe all of those other things will fall in line.  Eventually.

I absolutely love this quote, it pretty much sums it up where I’m at right now…

“Waking up this morning, I smile:

Twenty-four brand-new hours are before me.

I vow to live each moment fully

and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.”

 ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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This is not all to say that I won’t still be waking up on New Year’s morning trying to start the new year out on a good foot.   😉

Peace & much Love to you all in the coming new year…