A new year brings so much prospect of hope for better. It is always the bright shining prospect of new, different and most certainly better. Even if we had a fine year it can always be better, right? Maybe this is our year! All those dreams, goals and aspirations we have ever wanted can come true …now. The turning of the calendar is a powerful action that allows the dreamer in us free at least momentarily. It is a gift to stand at the threshold of a new year and have that hope in our hearts and eyes open to the possible. We all share that feeling and power on New Year’s Eve too.
The prospect of it all is simply on our own inflection of a new year signaling this launch into new that makes it seem magical and powerful. It is a point in time where we feel nudged to serving a greater push of hope and focus that we can achieve our goals. Nature’s reminder we are all capable of achieving them. Timeless sayings reflect our desire for improvement of circumstances, experiences, fresh opportunities and simple swapping of new from the old. Even the old dusted off and made to feel new brings us this feeling sometimes.
The curious thing is if it weren’t for a change in calendar marking the new year would we still desire these things? Would we work to establish new in our lives when we needed it rather than waiting for the start of a new year? The signaling of time changing serves as a trigger we need and yet it is itself just like any moment in our lives that passes with the tick of a clock every day. Why now then does it seem like a new door opening?
I always hold a bit of anticipation in my heart on New Year’s Eve. It is like holding your breath with an electric tingle going through your body as you think about what is going to happen next. I call those my oh crap pauses. It feels like that momentary pause where things are moving in unexpected slowness as a door quietly opens and you’re expecting to be surprised. A good surprise hopefully but you never know right? I feel a flutter in my heart and know there is no turning back. Would I even want to turn back time if I could though? Is that the better answer than seeing what is ahead? I periodically will think so when I’m tired, overwhelmed and scared. It is the unknown and risk that makes us think this way I believe.
The truth is I never go into a new year thinking it will go badly. My heart won’t let me. No matter if my entire life is up in flames at the time, there is this idealistic thinking I go through that come January 1 those problems will stop and all will be good in the world for me. Things will get easier and whatever problems that come up they won’t be anything bad. I’ll overcome them easily. The truth is the time between Christmas and New Year’s is often a reprieve from daily life problems so it is easy to think this way. We can course correct and things will be easy and better because we feel in control, with a plan, have a goal and will do better. Then January happens and life returns to “normal.”
In a few hours it will be a new year. I have no resolutions, no special word or flushed out intention. I don’t even know what to expect at this point. The element of surprise over the past few years has attuned me to expect the unexpected and hope for the best. If you had told me in 2020 I would be spending the year at home without travel, wearing a paper mask in the grocery store I would have laughed at you hysterically. In 2020 I had goals, a plan and was ready for that year to be incredible. That was supposed to be a magical year! It was in fact incredible but not for any of the reasons I had outlined. 2021 followed suit much the same as 2020. So while I’d love to go into 2022 thinking this has all turned the corner, even my level of hope may not be that strong this time.
Having hope and being realistic is where I find myself this New Year’s Eve. Perhaps that’s burnout. Can you be burned out from new years? I know it takes more than wishes and hopes to make things better too. From my experience it is the wishes, hopes and dreams we put into action that best dictate if things materialize or not. The rest is pure luck and chance, if you believe in that sort of thing. If I go into 2022 though not feeling hopeful do I even stand a chance of it being good? The answer is no of course.
Without hope of the unknown being good we are setting ourselves up for mess and problems. We are giving up before we even get started. So while the problems we have may follow us into a new year they can feel different because we choose to see them differently. We can apply hope and work to make them better too. Mindset is 80% of the solution 100% of the time. It is something I have learned to apply in my own life. At times I think it is complete bs but there is also a lot of truth to it.
So as we embark on a new year, let us be brave, full of hope and joyous. Let us hold that joy for as long as we can against the problems of the days ahead. Let us know we are truly the best indicator of how the new year will go too; moving towards our dreams or farther away. This is nature’s call to us for action in the positive and a reminder that not all is bad in the unknown. Make it your best year yet! It is a gift.
All the best for a happy and healthy new year.
Amy
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