Here's to a Fresh Start!

A new year is upon us! Can you believe it? I certainly cannot believe it was an entire year ago that I was making final preparations for our wedding and packing for a honeymoon.  Time truly flies.  Someone (a much-smarter-than-me someone) once told me that the reason time moves faster as you age is that each year you live becomes a smaller and smaller percentage of your life.   This concept is strange to think about, but it makes a lot of sense.  For example, as a small child, time seemed to move by soooo slowly.  And in a way, it really did move slowly.  When you were five years old, a single month was nearly 2% of your entire life.  Now, at the age of 28, a single month is a measly 0.298% of your life.  When you are 60 years old, a single month is only 0.139% of your life… practically nothing at all! This, in geekish mathematical terms, is why time seems to move faster and faster the older we get.  (Yes, it took me an excessive amount of time fumbling around with a calculator to come up with these numbers.  And I am not positive they are correct, but it sounds good, right?)

Anyhow, I digress. I always like to start the year with a major purging all some of the clutter that has magically collected itself over the previous 12 months. At home, starting the year with a clean house is very desirable (this has not yet occurred, but at least I can say that all Christmas decorations are safely tucked away in the drafty attic under the orange roof). And at work, I love to start the year by cleaning out old emails and stacks of paper that I hold onto for no apparent reason, except for the lingering question, "What IF I need this someday, and I've thrown it out or deleted it?".

Also, along with a New Year, comes New Year’s Resolutions, which are undeniably cheesy, but I love setting goals for myself.  There is something so fresh about the idea of wiping the slate clean and starting over.  I have crafted resolutions for myself in the past that I have actually kept long-term, such as balancing my checking account daily (this has become a nearly obsessive habit for me, as David is learning to cope with bringing me all of his receipts) and to stop biting my nails (I fall off the wagon every once in a while when I am feeling rather worrisome).  Then, there are some other resolutions that I make year after year after year that have less of a success rate, such as being less judgmental and more patient with others. 

*As an aside, I find it somewhat interesting that my resolutions relating to my character and the state of my heart are so much harder to keep than the ones that pertain to actually doing something. Alas! Such is the human condition.

Regardless of if your New Year’s resolutions are actually maintained over time or not, I think the main point of setting them is aiming to better yourself.  A new opportunity to finally get it right this time around. The prospect of making this year the best one yet.  An attitude adjustment on January 1. (Mom loved to tell my brother and me that we needed an "attitude adjustment" quite frequently as children.  The day I word-vomit that phrase onto my own children, I will know for certain that I have morphed into my mother.)

There have been a lot of things said about “good intentions” and how “intending” to do something is just not good enough. (Didn't you know that the road to hell was paved with good intentions?) In the case of resolutions, I disagree.  As humans, we fail. We fall short. We are imperfect.  But I believe the acknowledgement of these faults and having the sole intention of making it right or doing it better is, in some ways, good enough.  New Year's resolutions give us the opportunity to reaffirm our belief in ourselves. So, this year, I make my resolutions with every intention of keeping them. And next year and the next, I will do the same. 

“Let your intentions be good— embodied in good thoughts, cheerful words, and unselfish deeds— and the world will be to you a bright and happy place in which to work and play and serve” Grenville Kleiser






* If you, personally, are looking for a New Year's resolution and are completely stumped, I've got an easy and quick one for you, so that you can say you have officially and successfully completed your first resolution of 2012.  If you read my ramblings, please become a Follower. Click "Join this Site" over to the right of the page. Then, just keep reading! Becoming a Follower will take a mere minute to do, and in turn, will inspire me to keep writing.*