New Year’s Eve. A classic day to take a break and look back (if we find the time during that day that often is spent preparing dinner for friends, oneself for the party, the pets for all the noise), also a classic day to look at what might be in front of us. A day for regret, a day for thankfulness, a day for hope.
While we take a bath, put on some new nail polish, get dressed and all spiffed up that feeling of excitement spreads like champagne through us. We look forward to that new day, the new year, a new dawn. We reach out to a future that never seems as close as on that last day of December.
Many of us make resolutions, promises to themselves to make it better, to make an effort and to succeed with it this time. Everything seems possible in that moment before we cross the line. But from where do we take that solid belief that things will change just because the year count adds a number? Why do we think we could outsmart that continuum of time and place? And why do we tend to put so much pressure on ourselves?
I admit it. There isn’t a single New Year’s Eve in my life I had made a reolution. I gave up smoking years ago in August without even telling myself I would never do it again (instead I said to myself I can start again when I’m 70 because then it won’t do so much harm any more). It was never in me to drink or eat so much that I had to go on a diet (lucky me, you might think, but to tell the truth, I often had a hard time not to loose so much weight that I would get ill). And when I set goals as to what to achieve I always do it when it occurs and I try to put realistic deadlines to it.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to outline that I know it all, do it all better and am the queen of wisdom in general. On the contrary. I fail a lot in my life. I stumble, fall, and get up again. I hold a torch and get burnt. I have those moments in which I’m not sure how I should ever find back the power to go on. I get tired of being a fighter. Hope slips out of my hands. And in my darkest hours I loose it just like anybody else does sometimes.
What I’m trying to say is don’t be so hard on yourself. Don’t put so much pressure on your shoulders that you can’t stand tall anymore. Make resolutions tonight if you want to but keep in mind that failure is not what counts. You won’t get nowhere if you won’t take risks. Failing and trying again is part of the plan. With each try you will get better, and in the end you will get what you need.
In this sense I wish all of you a wonderful New Year’s Eve and all the best for a fantastic 2013!