Happy New Year

The New Year brings to many new beginnings. Many people make resolutions, while others look to change their lives all together. This brings one critical question to mind. The question rests on the behavior of humans in general. How can we either 1) be so unhappy with ourselves that we use this date to completely revamp what and who we are, or 2) begin today to alter something that we find so materially defective in ourselves that we publicly declare that we are changing this about ourselves. This leads me to two questions. Why today, what is so special about January 1st? Also, Why if these are such critical flaws that we find in ourselves are we so likely to break our resolution and fall back into our old habits? The history of January 1st is just an arbitrary date that was decided upon when the Christian world took on the Gregorian Calender. This date or day in the "solstice" means nothing then. There is no objective reason that is apparent for choosing this date. But if we hypothetically accept this date why would this be important. Well, many people look to this date as a birth of a new year and therefore with a new birth we wipe the slate clean of our past transgressions that we are less than proud of. With the slate wiped clean we are free to behave in whatever behavior we state for ourselves. Of course, this is utterly absurd because nothing changes on this day, your Friends are still your friends, family still looks at you the same way so this means nothing. When looked at objectively this is not only intellectually unfulfilled but a clear set up for failure. If we enter with the false belief that everything is wiped clean we do not adequately prepare to the challenges that will lie ahead in our quest to change whatever it is about ourselves that we are not happy with. Additionally, this date of January 1st is abhor ed on a physcological level. In the winter months, those in the northern hemisphere receive less sunlight and consequently have lower serotonin levels. This causes mood swings and depression which further contribute to the already challenging mental battle to alter our behavior. As basic physics shows, an object at rest tends to stay at rest without adequate energy to set it in motion. Additionally, if further energy is not expended to continue the motion, that object will return to rest. That is why (the wonderful program) alcoholics anonymous made the statement that you have never recovered from alcoholism but are a constant recovering patient. With this mindset, those recovering still have to expend energy to not return to our proverbial rest. This is why I would encourage those who are changing themselves have them mindset to always expend energy, and take advantage of the surrounding you have in front of you.
For the second part of the question, why wait until January 1st? If this is something that we find so deplorable that in order to change ourselves we need to publically declare it on a day for resolutions, why in the world would we not change it immediately. Unfortunately, I have now reason not to. So if there is something you don't like about yourself, change today. You are only changing for yourself anyway, ,why wait. Good luck with your resolutions and have a Happy 2008.