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Thoughts To Make You Think: January, 2005 |
Copyright Patti Henry, 2005
January: The New Year
I’ve always liked the New Year holiday because it’s a time when massive amounts of people purposefully self-evaluate. In fact, for some, it may be the only time of the year for really thinking about themselves and their lives. Considering what Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and the fact that large numbers of people actually do self-examination during New Year’s, it is perhaps our most important holiday of the year. So let’s take a moment to give it some weight, and look at it from two different angles.
First, people look at things they want to do differently in the New Year. New beginnings. New Year’s Resolutions. Eat right. Start an exercise program. Join a health club. Pay the bills on time. Develop a marketing plan. Have a baby. Be kinder. Go to church regularly. Get out of debt. Write a book. Find a new broker. Change jobs. Get braces. Go back to school. For me, it’s to travel more in 2005, with at least one international trip.
These all fit into the category of “setting goals.” This is the first way to look at the New Year: going somewhere. Moving – like river water. By this time next year, January 1, 2006, we want to have made some progress in life.
So what are your goals for 2005? My advice is to pick one. Not five; one. The most important one. Then write yourself a letter about it. All you have to put in the letter is:
This is my goal for 2005: __________________________.
Next, put it in a self-addressed, stamped, sealed envelope and give it to someone you trust who is reliable with these instructions:
Please mail this to me on July 1.
That way, half-way through the year, you can evaluate your progress.
A second way to look at the New Year’s holiday, besides new beginnings, is in terms of endings. I always encourage myself and others to get clear about what needs to be left behind in the old year. It’s a time to finish a chapter in your life as much as it is a time to begin a new one.
What do you need to get rid of? It might be a bad habit:
I’m going to leave smoking behind. That will stay in 2004 while I move into a smoke-free life in 2005.
I’m going to leave my addiction behind. That will be contained in the chapters of my life up until this new chapter, 2005.
I’m going to leave cursing at my partner behind.
I’m going to leave obsessing about money/food/germs/my body/the injustices done to me/you name it behind.
It might be a person that needs to be cut out of the rest of the chapters of your life. It might be a job that needs to be left in ’04. Or it could be something less tangible:
leaving my grief behind
leaving my anger and stepping into forgiveness in 2005
leaving my fantasy of getting back together with my ex behind: leaving lake water behind and moving into the river
leaving behind a year of too much work and not enough fun
leaving my depression back in 2004
ending my isolationism and stepping into a social year
leaving my shyness and insecurity behind
leaving my self-criticism at the end of the chapter called 2004
End your last chapter and begin your new one. Remember, you can write your story any way you like.
Blessed be. Amen. Shalom. And Happy New Year, too. |
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