Why everything stays the same despite our goals
January 1st is one of the most sacred days of the year , the day where people envision themselves as invincible beings , someone who can accomplish everything and become a version of themselves completely unrecognizable from the mere day before. The first day of the year indicates the starting line; the point where the “silent” race with everyone else we know begins, marking what we believe to be the rest of the year.
But we almost never get there do we? The lists come and go , the bullet points gone unmarked, the calendars stopped mid way and the markers running dry. We start putting off the gym we swore we would go to every day , the promised 10k steps we said we’d take at 6 am sharp, the slow mornings we planned and the early nights stretching to 3 am , We tell ourselves we always have tomorrow. But tomorrow comes and goes and eventually December rolls by again. Well, same time next year?
We have conditioned ourselves for satisfaction and doomed ourselves for disappointment. The constant need for change in our lives is a result of how we have been programmed over the years. We go down the rabbit hole that is social media and build piles and piles of ambitions that aren’t really ours. Scroll after scroll we someone with our “dream” life but, is it really our dream life if it changes with every video we watch? Our dreams may shift from being a bodybuilder to being a pilates princess, or living the soft country life, to wanting that big city hustle and bustle. We have borrowed the dreams and goals of the whole world without sitting with ourselves to dream of ours. So did the race ever really start or were we just waiting for our signal in the wrong lane? Maybe that’s why the finish line never comes and we’re stuck with the impending dissatisfaction, the self degradation and the belief that maybe we’re just not cut out for that.
This is where our need for quick dopamine fixes might hit. The absolute need to switch our hair color to something unfathomable for us last year , or hell maybe even getting an impulsive tattoo that’s going to be extremely regretted in the next 5 years or so. Let’s quit our jobs maybe? That’s definitely the reason why everything feels miserable, but this was my “dream” job last year? Everything feels like too much all of the time, and we have no way out of that hellhole.
So what do we actually do? Is there even a good solution to all of this, or are we just overselling ourselves? We could do what everyone else is doing and delete the main source of competition , social media , but that still doesn’t target the main problem. Who are we, and what do we genuinely want?
I would suggest sitting with your thoughts tonight. I would suggest pulling out a journal and brain dumping everything there is to say and let your brain speak for itself. Talk to your friends, open up to them , get constructive criticism and build yourself mentally and spiritually. Don’t let the dates define you, your life doesn’t start on the first and doesn’t end on the 30th. You can start on your own timings , even if it’s 3pm on a random Tuesday afternoon. Don’t drag yourself until the very end just to repeat the dreaded “same time next year”.
No question this time.
https://www.hercampus.com/school/sbu/screw-new-years-resolutions/