With the end of the year coming up into view, the idea of new year’s resolutions came to mind. Naturally, I began to think about what mine would be when I realised that the majority of this year has been spent fulfilling a lifetime’s worth of them. Given how many new habits, new systems, I have integrated into my lifestyle this past year, I know that I no longer need the prompt of something like a new year’s resolution, I will just do it.
I don’t even know what next to think of. The sorts of new year’s resolutions that I hear in my vicinity, and have become almost stereotypical, concern self-care in one form or another. Most intend to add balance and variety into their life through something like an exercise practice, a transformation in diet, or perhaps even a journalling or reading practice. I am proud to have reached a steady-state, or an equilibrium if you will, were those things are as core a part of my day as eating is. It is a novel situation to be in, one that I continue to be grateful to have been able to have had experience.
When I look back and consider the gravity of the transformation I have put myself to, breaking old habits and replacing them with objectively healthier ones, I wonder how common this is. I hear about people who take gap years all the time and while it is natural for them to experience an evolution in their worldview, it doesn’t often translate to practices that they carry forward once they inevitably fall back into working life. In my mind, all of these resolutions, this lifestyle has become so valuable and integral that I need to protect it as much as possible as I transition into the next phase of things. I am probably being naïve, but hey, no one’s ever accused me of being meek with my ambitions.