What’s in a new year and why do we need to recreate ourselves every year? Just like me, the answers to these questions are both simple and complex. A new calendar year, January First, is one by which the majority of people in the world mark the turning over of a new leaf with the turning in of the old calendar and adding one more year since our Lord was born give or take a few days.
Why do we all use this one particular day to begin a new or reenergize an old habit? I often find myself questioning why people do the things they do, like wait outside in line at a Target for five hours for a pink water bottle. Is it right? It is sensible? Does it matter? Why would I do something everyone else is doing? As the youngest child in my family, I quite often did what everyone else did, but then would ask myself why I was doing that. Was it ONLY because all my brothers and sisters were doing that or was it because what they had done was the most efficient or fun or intelligent way to do something? This constant analytics had me wondering why I had to do things at all, which is why the youngest child in the family constantly gets stereotyped as the one who is the laziest or the most entitled. There are lots of reasons this stereotype is true and maybe that’s for another blog.
The question really is – why January 1st? Why not April 13th? We are conditioned to do as others do and one of those things is beginning new at specific times of the year. Most make sense like spring cleaning. When the weather is warm, a farm family can deep clean and repair the parts of the house and farm that had fallen into disrepair during the months that were too bitter cold to spend time doing. The ground was hard, the water was frozen, frostbite and death were possibilites during the winter, so when the weather warmed up, if a family were to keep the spring rains out, the family began cleaning and repairing and making everything new. Many of us still deep clean during the spring even though nothing is really stopping us from purging and decluttering in February except that we do not like to work when we are chilly.
When a couple marries, everything is new (or should be). A new way of living, a new way of speaking a new schedule is adopted out of necessity. They set a date, had a party to commemorate and began a whole new life. They also held each other accountable by sharing when one’s feelings were hurt or the schedule was not accomodating. Each of them carried a persona into a marriage and then set out to meld that into one that resembles a little bit of both. Of course, when another new life is introduced, yet another new chapter opens and recreation happens again.
So why do we feel pressure to begin something anew on January 1st, well, it definitely does not make a difference if it is January 1st or January 13th or February 29th, however, the reevaluating of your life choices and which habits should stay, and which ones should go, is always a good idea.
Take this time or any of the dates mentioned before to look at the 7 different aspects of your life and find if any of them need a recharging. When I set goals as an individual, couple or family, I look at the Financial, Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, Family, Social and Career goals, reevaluate and set a few in each category. Whether you are a man or woman, married or single, these categories all fit. Don’t do these things just because I say to, because I certainly would never do something just because someone else was, but consider these to improve your life which just might affect someone close to you.
Complex Simplicity 