Monthly Musing – December 2022 – Resolutions

“What are your resolutions for next year?”

We were at a family party and after all of the catching up, discussions about football, being shocked at how much taller all of the children were, eating food, telling jokes, glass re-filling and general hilarity, the conversation turned to the New Year.

It has always seemed an odd concept to me that at the stroke of midnight on 31 December, the slate is potentially wiped clean and we can use our time in any way that we like for the next twelve months.  It’s like a modern fairytale; as the clock strikes twelve, our Cinderella lives are exchanged for something more toned, more healthy, more organised, more travelled and we can leave our “old” lives behind in the year before.  I do like the idea of time stretching ahead of us waiting to be filled, but New Year can also carry the pressure of feeling that we need to do something different whether we want to or not.

It’s not always possible, of course – we have commitments, jobs, families, and for most of us, making substantial changes to how we live is less like a super-bike turning on a sixpence and more like a super-tanker on the ocean taking half a mile just to slow down with no chance of a lightning-fast decision to move in the opposite direction.

We can do little things which add up over time to something big, of course.  That’s usually the best way to make lasting change (ask anyone who works at a gym how many New Year daily enthusiasts are still there in February!), and maybe we need the end of the calendar year to prompt us to think about how we can best do that.  We don’t need to wait until 31 December to do that, though.  There’s a risk that not taking our resolutions past January makes us feel that we have failed and we have wait another year before we can start again, but there are many times in the year that we can re-start.  There’s the springtime, which often feels like a more sensible time to start things afresh when the world is waking up and not in the depths of winter when everything (including us) should be resting.  There’s September when the children go back to school and even if you don’t have children in school, there’s enough “back to school” advertising to encourage you to start something new when terms start.  Or there’s the first day of every month.  We’ve got twelve of them in the year – twelve times to start something new, or to revisit something that we do already and see if it still fits.

My resolution – or intention, as I prefer to think of it – for next year is to remember that there are 365 days in the year, and although 1 January is the beginning of them, it doesn’t mean I have to have my whole year mapped out from the start.  It’s fine to try something different, to change my mind and to leave space for the Universe to take me in a direction that I had never even considered.  Not always as easy as it sounds for someone who likes to keep a tight grip, but I think it will be good for me – and if it starts to slip, I’ve got a new start every month to try again!