New Year, New Start

I like New Years Resolutions.

I realize I’m probably in the minority here. For a lot of people, the New Years resolution is just another thing to commit to, then forget about three weeks after it’s made. I get that. I used to be like that. I still am, for some goals. I’ve changed in the past few years, though.

Really, it started with turning 30. I don’t know what caused it—I wish I have an interesting, relevatory story to tell, but I don’t. I just looked at my life and thought to myself, I can do better. And I started to be consistent about certain things. To set aside a certain amount of time per day. And I began to see real progress. Sometimes it can take a long time to see progress, but once you start to see it, you’re hooked.

So now, I like resolutions. And I look back on this year, and I see that I’ve made a lot of progress—I can hold a basic conversation in French; I can play a song on a guitar; I can run a 5k marathon. I couldn’t do any of those things before 2011. But there are still some areas of my life where I need to do better. For instance, I’ve been writing novels for three years now and while I have three first drafts finished and a solid start going on the fourth, nothing is in a good enough state that I’m ready to show it to agents. (And I’m not being perfectionist here—I’m being realistic. They’re not ready). Also, I’ve been in New York for three years without making discernible progress on my acting goals.

These are both extremely important goals to me. And I could look back and feel depressed about not achieving anything in those areas last year—or I can look forward. The thing about New Years is that, while it’s a totally arbitrary date we’ve picked on which to start an actual new year—really, a new year could start anytime during the old year, depending on when you start counting—it gives you another chance. It gives you the breathing room to say, “okay, this is how far I made it last year—now let’s focus on what’s ahead.” Dividing up your life this way lets you move forward without the burden of last year’s failures and malaises.

I am all for new starts. And I am all for picking crazy audacious goals and dividing them up into easy, manageable chunks—things I can fit into an already-busy day or week. It’s how I’ve lived my life for a while and it’s gotten me pretty far. There’s still farther to go—and I’m excited to see how far I get this year.