HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s amazing how powerful a series of numbers assigned to each day is and the effect it has on the human race: 01/01/2013.

Had it not been for the Gregorian calendar dictating that January 1 marks the beginning of a new year, we would be going about our normal routine, treating it as just another dreary, snowy, groggy day in the cycle of our existence. Most people would rest their heads at a more respectable time, and in a more sober manner, waking up for work or school like the first of any month.

Instead, it empowers us to do things we hold back from, motivates us to change our current ways by breaking old habits, and inspires us to move forward. It causes us to reflect on what we had done the past 365 days and how much has truly changed – for better and worse.

But, it’s just another day.

Why do we need a calendar date to psychologically manipulate us into becoming empowered, inspired, and motivated? Why do we need this day to reflect on our past? Not long from now, old habits will resurface, and resolutions will dissolve. Thoughts of brilliant nostalgia will be in the backs of our minds, and grumblings of the bothersome and tedious chores of everyday doings will be expressed more often.

We put too much pressure on this one day; so much pressure, that soon our plans will shatter if we aren’t careful (there are of course those steadfast few). This is why we need to learn to treat each day how we treat January 1. And by this, I don’t mean by sleeping in and being hungover. What we need to do is wake up each morning motivated to accomplish something new. Reflect on yesterday, but live today to make a better tomorrow.

Our year is not set by what happens or what is said on January 1. Our January 1 is set that way. Our year is how we treat each day and how we handle what God gives to us.

So, inadvertently, I have therefore urged everyone to make a resolution, which is, in a roundabout way, to not limit making resolutions, changes, and new beginnings to just January 1. New Years Resolutions are in no way a bad thing to set, but we need to think on a micro level with our lives and not so macro.

"We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day." - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

 Sometimes you can’t help but be drawn to the appeal of having a “clean slate” and “starting anew.”