A Short Motivational Letter To You For The End of The Year
Dear reader, how are you holding up?
The end of the year brings along with it compelling feelings of hope and gratitude. But it can also be filled with regret and weariness about the things that have not been successfully accomplished. As of the time of writing this article, there are only three days left in the year 2021, and the message for you is this — there is no such thing as a “New Year.”
We go from December 31st to the new month of January. We continue our cycle of work, sleep, transportation, and daily rituals. For most of us, our lives do not take on this magical veneer of beauty and new beginnings. For most of us, life on January 1st can feel exactly the same as life on December 31st.
What does this signify? Well, this is why the New Year’s Resolution industry booms every start of the year. People are exponentially coming up with diet resolutions, fitness resolutions, rest/relaxation resolutions, relationship resolutions.
People want to get married before the year 2022 is over. Some people want promotion in their career. Others are looking forward to paying off crushing debt. Many individuals want to feel simple, unadulterated happiness. But the same cycle rinses and repeats.
Every. Single. Year.
Despite the myriad of resolutions that are generated, a correspondingly large number of people are left disappointed at the nonfulfillment of their goals and deepest heart desires.
The possibility of failure is inevitable.
So, if most of our New Year’s resolutions are doomed to fail, what is the alternative to having these hopeful wishes and dreams destined for oblivion?
A wise man once said that expecting something akin to disappointment will help ensure that once failure comes, we are not left bewildered. We can see the wrecking ball coming a mile away. But living this way means that life is constantly being lived on the edge. Is such a life worth living?
It is much better to live while sporting a healthy balance of optimism and pessimism. It is important to see January 1st, 2022, as just another new month. The herald of a new year is, quite frankly, as commonplace as entering the month of May. When you approach this season this way, it relieves some of that heart-crunching pressure to perform and tick off all the items on your checklist as if there were a gigantic timer hanging in the sky.
I have seen a lot of people — including myself — make this same mistake. We put off important decisions in our lives up until the day we are adding a brand-new number while filling out Today’s Date. We don’t start hitting the gym because it only “hits better” if we start during the New Year. We don’t call up that close family member or friend until we have the excuse of Seasons Greetings!™ to do so.
Then, when the highly anticipated January 1st comes, we are left with the feeling of, “And then what…”
“What exactly comes after this?“
Sure, this is a New YEAR, but what major difference is there between this brand-new day and the brand-new day of December 1st or even the first day of the month before that. When we place so much value on New Year’s achievements and then finally reach that juncture of a fresh period, the experience is often one of disillusionment. For the most part, you are the exact same as you were seven days prior on Christmas day.
One of the secrets to success is, therefore, NOT waiting to start working towards your goals on January 1st. You can just as easily start pursuing your desires in mid-June or during the hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving season in November. Set goals in monthly increments and try getting used to having both a myopic and a long-sighted view of life.
More importantly — have more self-compassion for yourself concerning the goals that you have not yet been able to achieve. If there is one thing these early 2020s have consistently shown us, it is that there is immense value in taking life one day at a time and actively choosing to have gratitude for life itself.
Your desired state of being will come in due time. Self-discipline and courage in the face of failure will get you there.
But in the meantime, take out time to appreciate the beauty of life, your life. There is a quote that has constantly kept me going throughout these years. I hope that when you read it, you will be able to enter this New Year with a more positive and compassionate frame of mind: “I may not be where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be.” — Joyce Meyer.
As always dear friend, stay kind and curious❤
