Make December Your New Year (Finally)

I say it's like deja vu, I say it's like deja vu. Sorry that just reminded me of a comedy sketch and then Neo in 'The Matrix'. So after having an entire post digression yesterday, I am back on track with 'Make December your new year.

It's no wonder I got side-tracked yesterday, Black Friday was a big day for many. It's also relevant, in a way, to this post. Although, most of our hands were guided, in a good way, to make a decision that we may well have put off for another time.

That's how New Year resolutions gets you. I am not a resolutions person. It's not that I don't have it in me to make them and carry them through, I have made many a commitment over the years and stuck with them. Then one year I had a realisation. Why wait until January 1st ?

I had no answer for that.

We might have a few thoughts on things we'd like to change, give up or take up, then we wait till the end of the year and start them. This mystical day when everything begins. Why ? So for quite a few years now I have been making my own resolutions as and when I feel like I should be. Like now. You see if there's something you want to do, the question you have to ask yourself is. Why can't I start this now ? Sometimes there will be a good reason but even then, is that reason, or reasons, always going to hold you back until the new year comes round?

It probably is a form of procrastination and we do it quite often. I'll start next week, next month or when the warmer weather is here. If you have an imaginary time in your head then if you actually start earlier then you're into 'bonus land' and that is a huge motivator because if you begin now, by the time you reach the aforementioned time, you are well ahead in the game.

A few years ago I took part in a tournament, details of which aren't salient. I managed to come away with a trophy and the sad realisation that I was far from fit, I mean even if I squinted I couldn't see it. On the journey home my friend and I were talking about doing something to get fitter. We were adamant that things were going to change starting tomorrow.

Just over a month later we happened to meet up at a training session and the conversation went back to the tournament and our conversation afterwards. I asked if he'd done anything over the month prior. No he hadn't. I had though, every day I had done some form of exercise. He was surprised and maybe I was too.

Even if, after the second conversation, he had begun to train, I was always going to be a whole

month ahead. So, the only difference was that I decided to follow through. I had no reasons good enough not to. Of course there will be times when it just isn't possible but I'll wager there are more times when it's just down to us not wanting to. Maybe we need to build up it, who knows.

One of my own personal favourites is that, something is better than nothing. The other that comes to mind is 'Shoulda, woulda, coulda but never did.'

Tomorrow is December 1st 2019. If you start anything tomorrow, by the time the year ends you will already have been doing it for a month. Your New Years resolution could be to continue what you started. That way, there is no big upheaval. No waking up on January the 1st and wondering why you said you would do whatever it is that you're dreading.

One final quote, well-used but hits the mark.

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

Get ahead of the game. 2020 will be a great year, made even better if there are thirteen months in it.