Have always penned down my ramblings here and I observe it has been about 12 years that I have been maintaining this online journal. There have been many things that have changed and transformed in these so many years and yet there are so many things that have remained absolutely the same.
12 years sure is a lot of time.
With 2017 behind us, we are now ushering in a new year with new goals, renewed promises and hopefully recharged batteries to make this a truly phenomenal year to each one of us. (I have been bombarded by a lot of Robin Sharma on my insta feed of late!)
This gets me to wonder – what exactly changed with the new year? You are still your old self on Jan 1st like you were on Dec 31st. For most, Jan 1st is probably the wasted version of theirs from the previous evenings binge. If I have to look at it in a complete rational manner, it is just a date change, so why attach so much importance to it, and assume that life is now about to change?
I realize that these new year resolutions are not something new, and have remained since times immemorial across cultures. This piece in The Economist – The origin of new year’s resolutions explains with alacrity the existence of such phenomena from four millennia ago.
So what is this?
It probably is the human brain and the dreams that we keep feeding it with that tomorrow is going to be good. The basic tenet of Human life, hope is at full play here.
How many times have we heard someone say – “Monday, I am going to start dieting..”, “I will start going to the gym starting 1st of the next month”, we always try rationalizing our procrastination behavior by setting a distant date as a target. And to avoid complex maths in the brain, and for ease of remembrance we set the easiest one possible – beginning of month, beginning of week, birthday, or beginning of the year.
Well, this year gives no excuses. Jan 1st in 2018 is the beginning of the year, beginning of the month and beginning of the week. It probably is also your birthday!
And well, if you have not started yet, no stress. Today is as good as any other day!
A very Happy New year 2018 to you!