I love all the optimism that comes with the New Year don’t
you? Everybody seems to be in this “out with the old, in with the new” hyped up
eagerness with a “ta hell with 2016, 2017 is going to be sooooo much better” attitude.
The treadmills are all taken at the gym, and everyone has a fierce
determination to improve something one way or another. Let’s better ourselves!
YaY!
It’s the same thing,
every year. But can one year ever truly top the next? It’s the same with age.
Every year you think you’ve finally reached this pivotal point of, “Aha, now I
get it. Now my life is in order!” and then 5 years later you think, “wow, I
can’t believe I thought I knew it all back then. What the hell was I thinking?”
Time changes things. Time changes us. A change of a date is
one micro millisecond in time. It doesn’t matter much, yet its impact is
monumental in force once the last numbers change on that 365 day countdown. It
is a page turned, a page burned. A start of a new calendar and a shredding of
another. It is hope. It is relief. Sometimes it’s a raise of the middle finger
to the past and a popping of a champagne bottle to the future. A hallelujah to
a big ol’ “here we go again.”
It is a breath of fresh air. But only if you want it to
be. Akin to everything else in life it
is what you, and only YOU make it out to be. Why can’t every day be a new start
for us? If we want to make a change, then make it. I once thought resolutions
were back-up plans for those people who couldn’t accomplish goals. The only
obligation being to yourself and if you fail mid-way through, oh-well you gave
it nice shot. You know how many times I tried to give up sugar? I’d announce it
to all my co-workers and refuse their gifts of chocolate stating, “I don’t do
that anymore.” Then a week or two later they’d be confused as to why I was
digging my hand into the toffee popcorn as if it was totally normal.
Instead I take baby steps to improvement. I shop less and
give more. I spend less time critiquing and more time complementing. I try to
replace every bad thought with two good ones (try it!Ok I kind of suck at that
one) When I do good I feel good and life is sporadic and curve-balls are
unplanned so one cannot say what they will or won’t want to do at any given day
in any given moment because time changes. We change with it.
I try to exist only in the present. I spend a ton of time
just thinking because the most valuable thing in my life right now, the thing I
appreciate the most and that I never knew could feel so enjoyable is “time.” I
embrace it more than I knew was possible.
I went through an actual phase of guilt for being able to
enjoy the time that has now been available to me since I quit my full time
position 8 months ago. I felt guilty for being able to not set an alarm clock.
Guilty for not having to give 110% of myself in exchange for a paycheck. Guilty
for being able to do what I want when I want. You know when they say “time is
money.” It is. You can look at it in so many ways but the way I see it being
able to have time in exchange for a paycheck makes me wealthy in spirit instead
of dollar bills and to me that’s what matters more. I am rich in spirit. Money
is nice, but it’s a good lesson for the soul to learn how easily you can adapt
to having less of it. You feel more connected to who you are and what you want.
You are your true self because you don’t have to be anybody else to appease the
expectations of others. Time has taught me this.
So forget the resolutions. Make a constant vow, a forever
affirmation that you will become one with time. It is always on your side so
embrace it. Roll with it. Change with it. And always, no matter good day or bad
toast to it. Cheers to time.
