As we embark on the last month of the year, we will soon be celebrating the winter holidays with our friends and family, and we will arrive at the celebratory last day: New Year’s Eve. We all know what happens on this holiday; many people from all over the world will start reflecting on the year 2018. What went well? What went poorly? Did I achieve any of my goals? Have I grown since last year? People will look deep into the experiences of the last 365 days and reevaluate. What should change next year? How can I improve? Where do I need to start? How do I move forward? With all of these questions in mind, we dress up, we meet our friends and our family, and we dance the night away until the ball drops in Times Square of New York City. The next instant, the first moment of 2019, we start becoming our new best self; the person that we have always said we wanted to be. Guess what? You do not need to wait for that ball to drop for you to be your best you.
Take this into consideration as you are reading this; there is a month until New Year’s. If you are disappointed that things did not go your way this year, you do not need to wait until the clock turns midnight for you to make those things happen. The top resolutions that people made for 2018 were eating better, exercising more, spending less money and getting more sleep. My question is, why are these goals being made just because the year is changing? These are very common activities that all of us should be doing if we want to stay healthy and financially stable; two things that are important when supporting yourself. You do not, by any means, need to wait for the year to change in order to consume more vegetables. What I am saying here is, START TODAY. The “new year, new me” theory is utterly ridiculous. It should be “new day, new me.” Every day you wake up is a blessing; it is a chance to better yourself. If you are slacking off because you know that you will attempt to change again once a new year hits, you are doing it wrong.
I believe we take New Year’s resolutions to be an essential part of the end of the year holiday. This is not like a Christmas tree at Christmas, candy for Halloween, or a turkey at Thanksgiving. You can do without a New Year’s resolution. In addition, what you can also do without is not thinking about yourself. Do not slack off on yourself; if you want to better yourself, do that today. Take care of yourself and do not use the excuse, “I’ll wait until next year for that.” Don’t give up yourself. You do not know what life will throw at you before the next year comes around. Start now. Here’s to today.