Life does not magically “start over” because of the calendar…
It’s almost 2015 as I write this…
Because the New Year holiday is coming up, I was inspired to address one of the most common myths about the calendar changing over from December 31st, 2014 to January 1st, 2015.
The Myth of the “Blank Slate.”
The short, TL;DR version is this… it does not exist.
Some people believe, at this time of year, that magically January 1st represents a time to start over… that the next year is some “blank slate” from which to create the life of your dreams.
And that, my friends, is a big steaming pile of bullshit.
The calendar switches each and every month of its year, yet we don’t consider that to be the some blank slate to start each month over, do we?
Oh, but when the YEAR switches over… everything changes… life magically stops… and you can simply start over, hit the “reset button” as it were.
Now here’s the good news if you were beginning to think this was a negative article, one that simply called bullshit on an all-to-common myth.
You don’t need some sort of “blank slate” to live life like you want to, on YOUR terms.
In fact, thinking there is some sort of blank slate because the calendar switches over to a new year might actually be doing you more harm than good. Why?
Because, what do you do when you think some sort of relief is coming to a problem? That’s right, my dear reader, you procrastinate, you anticipate that relief’s arrival… and that is self-destructive.
Put another way, let me ask you the following questions:
- Why on Earth do you want to wait to live life the way you want?
- Why do you need a “do over” from something you cannot possibly escape (hint: it’s life, the calendar doesn’t change that)?
- If your life is so bad that you feel you need a “blank slate”… why don’t you just give yourself one and continue on in the right direction? Why do you need January 1st of a different year to tell you it’s OK to do that?
These are questions with seemingly obvious answers, but here are some questions with some no-so obvious answers:
- Are you sure you need a “blank slate” to make your life “all better”? Or, perhaps should you learn to accept that life comes with certain errors, and neither you nor life are perfect?
- Are you afraid of something? I’m not necessarily talking about a phobia here, but perhaps you’re just afraid of the fact you already could becontent with your life, if you really wanted to be?
- Are you positive you aren’t micro-managing your life to death? Part of being content is accepting yourself for who you are, and that includes all of your shortcomings (and we all have them).
The questions above should start you thinking about yourself in a way that accepts you for who you are. They should get you thinking about being content with your life.
But above all, I hope they get you to think about why you needed a “blank slate” in 2015 (or any other year) in the first place.
Because, my dear reader, I’m willing to bet you really don’t need one at all.
