The New Year usually comes with its fair share of resolutions. People always try to change their lives in some way, as if every year the beginning is much more significant than the end. Is it? Is starting something new more refreshin than doing something different each day, until "the end"? You have to wonder.
Even the people who mock others for trying to start their year "right" by going back to the gym, or trying to eat healthy, maybe even shopping less and saving more; even those people deep down feel the unnerving desire to change at least one thing about their lives.
At the start of my year I wanted to do something different, but not just a resolution which, c'mon, I'd stop doing within a few months of the new year, but a do-over. To somehow manipulate a re-birthing of ones' self intrigued me. The idea of doing something different everyday was more, and is more appetizing to me than saying I'll go to the gym everyday, or I'll eat healthier with every meal.
I guess as a person who struggles with holding herself accountable with the fear of failure in the long-run with just one slipup this new idea felt doable.
The unpredicatble state of living your life one way and then all of the sudden half-way through a feeling or an emotion, maybe even an action you change just one thing...is inspiring. You no longer know what tomorrow holds on paper. No lists telling you exactly what to do. It's all within my control to think about what I want to change, either big or small.
Say you have trouble with road rage. Well, what if when you're driving on the road and you start to feel that burn inside of you, that fury surfacing because the guy in front of you just cut you off without using his blinker...what if then, you tell yourself "No! This is my one thing I want to change today. I choose not to let that bother me." The ease of knowing you've completely your only meaningful task for the day. That's all you said you would do in the morning right?
"I will change just one thing today."
Seriously, you should try it. For me it has helped in so many ways that I could've ever imagined. I no longer feel burdened with a long list of chores to do. I know that they're there and that they "should" get done, but the one thing I'll worry about today is just changing one thing. I find myself focusing more on all aspects of the day, all of my actions and reactions; holding myself accountable for them. It makes praying and asking for forgiveness a lot easier because I already know when I've been too humble, too prideful, too afraid.
Just try it and see what happens. I'll bet you'll find yourself so inspired and so motivated that you'll find yourself not only changing just one thing, but you'll be changing by leaps and bounds without ever having to think about failing your New Year's resolution.
If you do, I want to know. Comment. Tell me what you changed and how you changed it. What have you got to lose?
