A New Year's Post

HAPPY (almost) NEW YEAR!!!

This is, hands-down, my favourite holiday! And not just because I enjoy staying up late and drinking champagne.

I genuinely enjoy taking time to reflect on myself and my life, and to plan for the year ahead.

I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions, though.

While I think goals are important and necessary, I've found a process -oriented approach to achieving them leaves me more likely to make progress - and less likely to feel like a failure if things don't work out when and how I'd hoped. After all, a lot can change in a year.

Instead of making New Year's resolutions, I look at this holiday as a good time to take stock of my habits, my patterns, my environment, and to implement changes that I hope will help me efficiently build on any positive progress I've made towards my goals.

I could go into more detail, but I have parties to prepare for, so I'll leave you with a link to this excellent post by James Clear on the benefits of focusing on systems over goals.

And, while I think the beginning of a New Year creates an opportune moment to focus on implementing positive change, it is by no means the only time to do so. Taking stock of our patterns, letting go of what no longer serves us, and trying something new can be a good system to implement throughout the year. After all:

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

- Hal Borland