There Is No New Year, There Is Just A New Day

“Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.” – Bill Vaughan

Before I begin, I wanted to say a few grateful words to each and every one of my loyal readers.

Thank you.

Thank you for sticking by me throughout all of the days, weeks, and months of 2011.

Thank you for repeatedly returning to view the latest published article, even if there was a gap of over a week between articles.

Thank you for writing comments, sharing my work on social media platforms, and supporting my writing even when I didn’t feel passionate about this whole blogging thing.

And thank you for downloading the Value 101 eBook and signing up to the Unlock The Door newsletter – I promise there will be an newsletter update going out on New Year’s Eve, detailing my plans for 2012.

There will also be the final Unlock The Door blog article of 2011 released on New Year’s Eve, which will detail a round-up of the year Unlock The Door had, it’s highs and lows, and a few more “Thank you’s” because I feel they need to be given.

But for this article, I wanted to provide you with a few words about the new year coming up. I wrote a similar post to this one last year, around the same time – you can check it out here.

In that post, I wrote about different ways to bring in the new year. For this post, I’d like to approach the topic from a different angle. You see, I look forward to the start of a new year – the possibilities that we always dream of seem more real at the start of a new chapter. It’s like we believe we can actually achieve some of the more far-fetched goals we set ourselves.

However, the past 12 months have taught me a lot about myself and my life. Even though 2012 will consist of 366 days rather than the standard 365, I still believe that it’s much more efficient to treat each day as a single opportunity to act, behave, and think in the ways we want, and to model our lives by our own choosing.

The New Year’s Mistake

December 31^st of the previous year is usually the date when most people have made their New Year’s resolutions, if not before. I have a couple in mind which I will be finalising on New Year’s Eve, and I reckon there will be one or two things that you will want to think about as we gear up for the New Year?

Whether you have or not, you’re still going to be making special effort in seeing out 2011, right? Most people celebrate the passing of 2011, the beginning of 2012, and the chance to right the world’s wrongs once and for all, right?

Actually we don’t. We usually focus on having a good time with the people we like and love, and forgetting about anything else. I’ve been guilty of this in the past.

But how often do we think about January 1^st, the day after the party? How often do we treat January 1^st as the perfect starting point to go after our goals and tackle our dreams?

The short answer is – we don’t. New Year’s Day is used as a recovery day from the night before, and the only productivity we get done is the clearing up.

This is where we fall down. The first day of the year is the best opportunity to begin our projects and ambitions because it is the first day. It’s the first chance to show ourselves and everyone what we intend to do. And yet we don’t even bother.

The first few days of January slip by, and it’s business as usual. Days turn into weeks, then Winter becomes Spring, and before we are even aware of what’s happening, the chance to change our lives and circumstances has gone. Another chance becomes just another year gone by.

January 1^st Is The Best Opportunity

When it comes to goals, what matters to us is that we see some results. Results motivate us, they prove to us that our efforts aren’t in vain. If we don’t see results, then we wonder why we should even bother trying, and the discipline and motivation quickly disappear. Without results, there is no fight.

With that in mind, when do you think is the best time to see results? Exactly – on the first day that we start the project. What better way to kick-start our goal than to see that our efforts are working out almost immediately.

Here are some examples of ‘first-day success’:

• Deciding to adopt a new diet, and chucking away some snacks on January 1^st.
• Deciding to exercise more, and going for a brief jog on January 1^st.
• Deciding to read more, and going through your dusty book collection on January 1^st.
• Deciding to get in touch with long-lost friends, and phoning one of them on January 1^st.

You’re not dumb, I’m sure you get the idea. Taking some action on the first day of the New Year means that we get our dreams off to a flying start. We can see results almost immediately, and this empowerment can carry us through the rest of the week, inspiring similar results. And with more results, our appetite for our goals keeps on increasing.

So start on January 1^st. Start fresh, and be ready for the change. Be ready for January 1^st 2012 to be the best January 1^st yet!

 

Image courtesy of Daily Pics Cool