In our weekly series, we offer a little inspiration to kick-off your week.
Some simple wisdom, elegant and accessible. From one soul to another.
We hope it helps you ease into your Monday.
xo
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The Myth of the New Year
There’s this thing that happens right about this time of year.
Where we’re fired up. Amped. Ready to take on the world.
Ready to start working out for the first time in awhile.
Ready to kick sugar to the curb (for good this time).
Ready to have the kind of relationship we’ve always dreamed of.
Ready to clear the clutter.
Ready to make room for all the riches to come.
And though I’m a fan of this energy, this enthusiasm to begin anew and start fresh, it inevitably falls flat. Am I right?
You start out gung-ho and end up feeling more ho-hum.
You’re not alone. That level of go-get-‘em energy is wildly contagious. Everyone is spouting mantras and affirmations and wishes, hopes and dreams for 2015. And we get sucked into the whole mania of new year-isms.
Yet the reality is that we wake up EVERY SINGLE DAY of our lives with the chance to begin again.
I call this whole thing, The Myth of the New Year. Not because I’m pessimistic, or don’t believe a new year can bring about massive change. It can and it does. But more often than not, resolutions become distant memories by February. This isn’t because we don’t have the best of intentions. It isn’t because we don’t WANT to change. Most of our intentions stem from a positive place. However unless we have DESIRE underneath our wants, and know how we want to FEEL— then no matter how loud we shout our dreams to the Universe, they will most certainly remain wants instead of haves.
Let me give you a little example from my own life: as I write this, I’m intermittently typing on my computer and coughing profusely. I’m on the tail end of a nasty cold + sinus infection that started three weeks ago. Yes, three. I’ve gone through more boxes of kleenex than I thought was humanely possible.
I had the biggest of intentions for this holiday season too. I was going to have the house decorated just so, take our amazing trip to NYC, come back and cook a delicious Christmas dinner for two, relax and get organized for the new year and welcome it in with energy and vitality in spades. Alas, that is FAR from how it went.
I alternated between my robe and my flannel PJ’s, between the couch and the bed and between old episodes of Glee and Home Alone marathons. I didn’t step foot outside the house for almost two weeks. And I certainly didn’t eat, drink and be merry, since I couldn’t even taste food properly until yesterday.
I’m not fishing for sympathy here. I’m telling you this because I’ve been feeling really, really shitty about ending 2014 and starting 2015 this way. It feels like my entire year has been set off on the wrong note. And because I started off in sickville, I’ve soured my motivation and shattered my momentum for starting the new year “right”.
Ummmm, crazy talk, right?
Obviously my year isn’t going to turn out dumpy just because I started it nursing a cold. It’s just how things turned out. Honestly, I don’t know what this year has in store, but what I do know is how I want to feel — and knowing that will take me farther than any new workout regiment, diet or cleanse ever could. Knowing that I want to feel CONNECTION + WONDER + LOVE + EASE + GOLDEN, has made enduring a 3+ week adventure with sickness, possible. Because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt what lays on the other side.
I challenge you this year, to start with how you most want to feel — in your life, your work, your relationships, in love, within your body, everywhere. Let this be your guiding post for 2015. Not some half-baked resolutions that will be laying curbside in a few months. Go with heart and soul over following the herd and quick results.
I guarantee if you can figure out how you most want to feel this year, it will be the year that radically shifts your entire life. I know because this simple principle, transformed mine.
Welcome to 2015!
With love,
