Is It Actually A New Year?

If you’ve been living for at least a couple of decades, you’ve been here and done this. We wear the goofy hats, the funky glasses, get the sparklers, the blowers, fireworks, and maybe a drink to toast to the new year. We put up the new calendar, all for what? Is it actually a new year, or is it just on paper but not in practice? Is it still 2005? Or 2015? Or maybe 2020? That’s great that you’re hanging up a new calendar, but are you reliving 2023 in 2026 for no reason?

 

Don’t expect time to do something you won’t do. If you are going to waste your time doing the same things that serve no purpose in your life, keep the same people around that only hold you back, time will let you do just that, no matter how loud you yell happy new year. Unfortunately, how we think about time lends to how we waste time. 24 repeating hours in a day, 7 repeating days in a week, 4 repeating weeks in a month, 12 repeating months in a year, and… I think you get it. While that’s amazing for organizational purposes, it’s not for appreciating the true value of time.

 

Every day is new, meant for you to progress further, do better, and try new things. Do you ever notice how, when you do the same thing over and over, time seems to fly by? It is because your mind is becoming used to that routine, and your mind is appreciating the time as much. But when you are using your time wisely and getting better every day, your mind is more engaged and taking in more of the experience. In short, you are actually living life.

 

So don’t use your new time to do old things. Let go of what didn’t work out, what didn’t go your way, what’s not helping you get better. You don’t get new time to keep doing what’s not helping you be better. Actually live the new day, new week, new month, new year; not 2000, not 1977, not 1981. There’s a whole life that’s going on around you that you are not living because you are stuck in the past. Don’t just yell happy new year and keep doing the old year. Let’s go. Life is beautiful, and if you’re still here, you have the opportunity to see it. Don’t waste it.