New Year’s is an Arbitrary Point in Time and Ultimately Meaningless

New Year’s, that time when the old becomes new, the time when we say goodbye to old habits and embrace change. A time for resolutions. Admit it, you’ve probably made at least a few in your life. You’ve probably managed to break almost as many.

Why are New Year’s resolutions so easy to break? Perhaps it’s because the New Year is simply a point in time, like any other, but arbitrarily ascribed significance through social constructs. Perhaps it’s because New Year’s is ultimately no different from any other point in time.

Or maybe that’s all just an excuse.

I mean, yeah, if you want to get philosophical, you can argue every single point in time is ultimately meaningless, if you want to go down the cynical route, but where does that leave us? With a good excuse for not making change. And that’s fine, you don’t have to change anything! You do you!

But, if we did want to make a change, how can we approach the New Year with the greatest chance that our change is successful?

It is important to recognize that, despite how great everything may or may not be going, there are some changes going on in the world outside of ourselves. Things are changing. New Year’s is not just an arbitrary point in time...it’s the end of cookie season.

It’s the end of back-to-back-to-back holiday party season. It’s the end of cheese platter and rich dessert season, and the end of of various exotic foods covered in chocolate gift bag season.

Now I love this season, don’t get me wrong. I love cookie and cheese platter season. I love apple season and watermelon season, too. But all good things must come to an end, and after New Year’s the cookies start getting a bit overripe.

To all you cynics using “time is a man-made concept” to rationalize not doing anything different in the new year, you’re not exactly wrong, but…well, I’ll just say I wish you all the best with that.

For the rest of us, we can acknowledge there are real changes taking place in the world around us, regardless of the arbitrary meanings we give to them.

The season has changed. The days have finally stopped getting shorter and shorter. We’ve prepared ourselves for the remaining days of winter, now begins the natural process of slowly preparing for the next season: t-shirt season. It’s time to begin our long, arduous climb out of this dark well, and drag ourselves back into the light of spring.

It’s time. Your body has (hopefully) stabilized after putting on another layer (or two) in preparation for the cold winter, and now it’s time. Time to start dialing in your nutrition and exercise. This doesn’t have to be dramatic, it’s often just a natural progression.

New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be symbolic of a struggle, they can symbolize a harmonious synchronization with the world around us, a conscious decision to embrace the natural changes that are occurring without any help from us either way.

Go ahead and make some changes, it’s only natural!

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