As we all ring in the New Year in our own ways, I feel that it is important to remember the significance of beginnings and endings. There is something pretty miraculous that happens every year around the world on December 30th. The ability to feel as though you're starting over with a clean slate can inspire people to take in their environment with eyes that see possibility. The reality, however, is that it is just one day ending to allow another to begin. January 1st may be the first day of 2012 but it is also just another Sunday like so many that have come before it. What makes this one day so much more special and notable than any of the others? Your answer is.....you. It is your perception of this day that makes it what it is.....a new beginning, a fresh start. A day for resolutions and promises and change. Without your deliberate effort tomorrow is just another Sunday. It is important to note that the day itself possesses no magical powers. It does not have the ability to make your dreams come true, to help you lose weight, or to give you the strength to employ more patience and forgiveness. January 1st does not care who you kiss at midnight, what you wear, or whose company you keep. This is because January 1st is simply one more Sunday in a year littered with them.
Sprinkled with that special New Year's dust we all feel a little bit more powerful, a little bit more optimistic, and a little bit more excited about these wonderful lives we have been gifted with to do with as we please. What is sad is that the dust wears off the further we venture into the year. Twelve Sundays from now, most will have shrunken their optimistic enthusiasm for the future. Resolutions will be broken and we will begin to seek the comfort of the walls of our habits which have shielded us from our innermost desires. Sunday becomes just another day of the week and we become exactly what we began as, people who want more but don't seek it.
Now before you go and get all depressed take this into consideration, if January 1st is just another day and if the only thing that makes it so special is you then why can't everyday be seen as a new beginning? Why can't each day be greeted with as much gusto and viewed with as much optimism and excitement? If you are the magic that makes New Year's Eve so amazing then why can't that same magic be employed 365 days a year? Perspective is what makes your life what it is. Every morning is a clean slate, a fresh start, and an opportunity to see your life for it's many possibilities. So here is my challenge to you as you celebrate the beginning of a New Year; have fun, be safe, and never forget that you are the only catalyst necessary to living the life you dream of. You are the wizard, there are no magic shoes and there are no magic days. Every tool you need to find success and happiness has been woven into the fabric of your being. All you have to do is believe in the existence of the profound and endless possibilities that lay before you and then make a conscious effort to reach your arms out and welcome them into everyday. So happy New Year, happy January through December, and Happy lives to you all.
