Fresh Start
I am a big fan of a fresh start, a clean slate, or a new beginning. However, you may want to describe it. I love them. Maybe too much. I look at these fresh starts as a new chance to get it right. To become the person I want to be, to break the bad habits, to form new habits. Everything is possible and with each new fresh start, all the failures are in the past.
I come at these fresh starts with a hopeful and excited outlook that this time will be better. That I will succeed in working out every day or writing new pages for my book. Whatever the goal is, I am positive that not only will I stick to it, but I will thrive. The optimism outweighs any thoughts about how I have failed at trying to create these habits in the past. Those failed attempts were the old me. The new me is the one who will succeed.
Throughout the year, there are many times I will give myself a fresh start. On a Monday, when I get back from vacation, the first of the month. All of these are little resets. My biggest fresh starts are my birthday and the first of a new year. These new beginnings often come with major reflections, and thus major shifts in goals of things I want to change in the coming year.
The one downside I have found from being a fan of a clean slate is that I can quit my progress prematurely. If I am planning on eating better on Monday, then I will often spend the entire weekend indulging all of my favorite foods. This kind of thinking has hurt my progress on more than one occasion, and something I am working on.
Fortunately, when I do look back, and assess my past I can see the progress. Tho, rarely as much progress as I would have liked but it is there. I want to write a novel, and I have struggled to get started on it, but when I look back at the past few months, there has been progress. A few ideas have been worked on, a few chapters have been started. Some foundation has been laid, so that my next fresh start, I have something to build upon.
Thankfully, I have the mindset that change is a process and it won’t be a smooth journey. This allows me to not be frustrated when I fail. When I reach a setback and am forced to start all over.
Life is a journey, and you never reach the final destination, so each fresh start is a new chance to chase the elusive dream life, that is ever-changing. My dream life today is different than a year ago and will be different in a year from now.
Right now, I am looking forward to the fresh start of a new year.