Happy New Year, My Friend!
Well, would you look at us? We made it to 2026! Have you written it yet? It’s not like the oldy moldy days when we were writing lots of checks and got lots of practice with a new year right off the bat. 2025 had a nice ring to it, but I prefer the years that are neatly divisible by two. Call me crazy.
I don’t know about you, but New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are two of my least favorite days of the year. Really, the last few days of the year included. Everything you hear is all “reflecting on the past year” and “what do I want to do better next year.” Ugh! The pressure!
Those days always make me feel like I need to be deep in thought, coming up with some brilliant saying that will encapsulate my feelings about the entire world and my entire life. After all, everyone on social media is doing that! They are having epiphanies right and left, writing about them and posting beautiful photos of nature—or their last meal—to accompany their reflective, emotion-packed sentences. All I can muster is a meme of Snoopy dancing and a weak wish for everyone to have a Happy New Year!!! (Notice I add lots of exclamation points for enthusiasm’s sake.)
The truth is, I don’t feel very “reflective-y” and “epiphany-ish” this time of year. And it makes me feel like a bad person. New year’s resolutions? Goals? Ick. Thinking about that feels too hard and makes me want to go take a nap. And yet, not “trying to improve myself” seems so un-American. What’s a gal to do?
At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, my daughter, Maria, and I both worked on a goal-setting workbook that we were sure would change our lives. Man, did I fill out that book! I dug it out the other day to have a look. It asked all kinds of questions that dug deep into your very soul and revealed to you your “word of the year.” From there, you went on to establish goals: big ones, little ones, in-between ones. I kicked goal-setting b-u-t-t for January and February and half of March. And then along came COVID. Well, the rest of the book isn’t touched.
Funny thing, though: I looked at my goals for 2020, and if I sat down and wrote some for 2026, they’d be pretty much the same. I have the same priorities six years later.
That was actually a sigh of relief to me. Maybe that’s why I don’t feel the need to make a resolution list each year. Maybe I’m just trekking through life, one day after the next, epiphany-less though it may be, and making steady progress forward. No big whoop. Just one step at a time without fanfare.
Does anyone else feel a sense of relief on January 2? If you’re a big setter-of-goals, I salute you. May you make those changes you are seeking! Godspeed! But if you’re like me and tend to “stay the same” no matter what, let’s just keep on keeping on and not feel guilty about it.
Whether you’re a big-time-changer or a stay-the-samer, or somewhere in between, I wish you many blessings in this new year!
Written with love – – – Patti XOXO