28 Dec 2012

New Beginnings

On New Year's Eve we get this solemn feeling of approaching a new beginning. We think of New Year's resolutions and we really believe we'll keep them. I like that solemn feeling. There's something about putting your efforts into a Resolution with complete determination... like "tomorrow I will be a new and better person".
Unfortunately, some days or weeks into the new year we often find ourselves living on exactly like we did in the old year, having forgotten everything about the resolution, our determination and the New Beginning. That's so sad. We might even loose faith in the possibility of ever changing ourselves or our lives.
The good news is: we can change! At any given day, like 17 March, I can decide to leave what happened yesterday behind, draw the lessons from what went wrong and make a leap not only into a new day but also into a New Life. I can decide to leave one of my bad habits behind,  like making "witty" comments to everything people say.
It only needs three things: Determination, Concentration, and Stopping.
If I have taught myself to stop and take three conscious breaths every now and then during my day, I can use that as a help to catch myself when I'm falling back into unwanted behavior. And the more often I catch myself in the act, the more often I will learn to stop before it has happened - and do nothing. I take a deep breath, instead of making that comment (for example). It makes me feel incredibly good about myself when I succeed, and I promise you: the more often it happens, the more often it will happen again. The famous snowball effect!
So the 1 January feels like an extra serious New Beginning. I have decided on an somewhat more weighty improvement action - and when I wake up after the New Year's Eve party I will ... (The Resolution)... with Determination and Concentration, and with the help of Stopping.
A New Beginning fit for a New Year :-)

No comments:

Post a Comment