Chic in China

 

We are about a week in to 2015 and probably most of us have already broken our New Year’s resolutions, if we even made any to begin with. Every single New Year’s eve right before the clock strikes twelve we stand there in the light of the fireworks with a glass of champagne and make promises for the next year, and hope that like Cinderella even though the magic might disappear at the stroke of twelve, our lives will still change for the better.

I am not slamming people’s hopes and aspirations of making the next year better than the one before and making some new and great changes to their lives. It is just that after the first one or two weeks of the new year our one year gym cards will start to collect dust in our wallet, those organic vegetables in the fridge will be replaced by fast food pizzas, the occasional “party cigarette” will turn into a pack a week and the quest for true love will turn into a one-night-stand named Rob…or Bob…or whatever it was.

Every year it is the same story, so why do we keep making resolutions? Is it the champagne induced feeling of “everything is possible”? Or maybe an actual act of trying to be better? Or maybe they just give us a sense of “well, at least I tried” and then we can feel okay about going back to being our true selves.

I think resolutions are not so much a motivation as it is a sense of pressure. There are already enough “have to”, “must” and “should” in life, so why add to that? Therefore, about 4 years ago, I decided that I was done with resolutions; instead of making a list of things I SHOULD do, I would make a list of things I WANTED to do. And suddenly, instead of giving me a feeling of pressure of having to do things and change my life like resolutions usually would make me feel, I felt inspired and motivated to do and try new things. For instance; Climb the Great Wall of China, see one of my favourite artists live and finish my studies. And guess what? Check! Check and Check! It is so much more fun to set goals for things you actually want to do, and the feeling when you accomplish them is just incredible. And then when the year is over it is fun to look back on the list and see what you did, and for the things you didn't do, you just put them on next year’s list.  

I like to think of every year as a book. Every day is a page and it is up to you what those pages should be filled with. Not every day can be “amazing”, “incredible” and “spectacular”; we all have shitty days to. But doesn’t it feel so much better to start out the first page with a list of fun dreams and aspirations rather than a list of “must” and should”? After all, the first few pages are always the most important; it will determine if you will quit right now or keeping going to the very last page.