Jodie Vanderslot | Health Editor
Featured image | Rowan Campbell
We wait for a new year to begin again in order to make our clean break, to have ourselves a fresh start. I don’t know why we wait, because if 2017 taught me anything, it was this: you are under no obligation to be the person you were five minutes ago.
I have been the one to download, delete, and reinstall apps. I have had notes and lists on my phone, and designated agendas and planners for maintaining and upholding the infamous “new year’s resolutions.”
We wait each time for a new year, then at the start of a new month, and so on. This feeling of “new” is refreshing and filled with promise and potential, because it has not been tainted or touched.
“New” presents itself as a blank canvas, in which we fear to make any wrong strokes; it does not carry the burden of the past or failed resolutions. We prolong our progress because we’re waiting for the right time to change, but change can happen at any time.
There was something about 2017 that was both bitter and sweet. I knew it would be a year of change, I just couldn’t have anticipated how much.
New year’s resolutions are admirable, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a list of my own, but we don’t need to wait for a new year each time we’d like to make a change. There is something so powerful in knowing that you don’t have to be the same person you were when you woke up this morning, if you don’t want to. One of the most important things we need to change is our perspective.
All of those new year’s resolutions are just the start; there will still be challenges and hardships, because they don’t disappear just because it’s a new year—but you can survive it.
In 2018, accept every loss, every heartache, and every tear. Be prepared to lose people and open to gaining some, too. Accept that even though there will be hard times, there will also be good ones. Forgive yourself for what you don’t get right and for the challenges you couldn’t face.
You haven’t worked this hard to stay the same. With your heart mended and clear intentions, move on in silence, take giant steps, and throw yourself into everything.
You can always start over. You can decide you no longer want to be anchored to the same routine and change it. You can always make a different choice, whether it’s the way you choose to see things, or the way you decide to react to what’s happening around you. You’re not a bystander in your own life—this year, you gain more freedom than you ever thought you had.
Each new day is a new opportunity to be the person you want to be.
