In The New Year, Leave All Of 2017’s Bullshit Behind

I have a weird adoration for New Year’s.

I enjoy the mindset people trick themselves into, that it’s a fresh start and everything can be different. In reality (and we all know this) nothing changes just because you got a new calendar and the clock struck 12. You’re still you, everything that has happened to you still clings to your soul. Nothing’s different.

However, it’s the choice that brings New Year’s its magic. You are suddenly granted the ability to choose to be different, to choose to actively change your life. To choose to leave behind whatever the hell messed you up so much in the past year.

I’d encourage you to do that. Lay out your 2017 self, dig through your personal dirt, and smile back on the moments of great light and breathe it all out.

Part of what makes New Year’s Eve hard for a lot of people (aside from a wicked hangover) is our odd ability to hang on to the irrelevant past. We are still so upset about what didn’t happen, who we weren’t given the chance to love, and we hold onto that. We cradle it in our arms and try to wake it back up into existence. Wouldn’t it be easier to accept that time will continue to move, and we have to move with it?

Friends, we have to start accepting that when things don’t work out, it’s simply because they weren’t meant for us. I’m not going to spin you that ‘everything happens for a reason’ crap, because that really is crap. Shit happens so you can learn from it, but sometimes shit just happens. Heed my words here: leave that shit in 2017.

So, what if the change in the year doesn’t actually change anything? That part’s up to you. Choose to give it some meaning, choose to be a better version of yourself; because if we need anything at this point, it is people being better. Please be someone who actively makes this change.

Give yourself a clean slate this year. Even if 2017 was wonderful for you, let that greatness propel you forward to improve even more this year. Run fast, run forward, and don’t stop.