A brand new year of ramblings

There is a saying in Italy: "What you do at New Year's, you'll do the whole year" - in other words, if your want to ditch cigarettes and booze in 2009, don't spend New Year's chain smoking and getting drunk (I can hear a chorus of "how else would you celebrate the New Year?"); and if your resolutions include losing weight and "everything in moderation", perhaps you shouldn't spend New Year's stuffing your face ("oh, that's how!") at a huge banquet with all of the foods you are getting ready to swear off as soon as you are ready to start on your impossibly unreal resolutions to be thinner, smarter, better organized and just nothing resembling your current self, really. No? Just me then?

Everybody is making a list of resolutions, things they want to accomplish in the New Year. Because that number one on the calendar is like a signal, like someone giving you carte blanche, and then you can do whatever you want do, be whoever you want to be, or become - it's like a new year gives you more freedom, like the beginning of the year is a new beginning.

And maybe it is. Or maybe we just like to find excuses for new beginnings, new chances to start over. And of course we all look for ways to motivate ourselves to start doing better, start being better, and why not? Motivation isn't the kind of thing you can just wait for. You need to go after it.

So here we are, at the beginning of a new year, going after motivation and going after our goals, after our better selves that we know - or at least we hope - are somewhere in our future. Oh, who am I kidding? Most people's idea or "better" these days means "richer, thinner, better dressed". How many people do you know who include "be kinder" in their New Year's resolutions? If it wasn't for the fact that being "green" is trendy right now, most people wouldn't even think of including that in their resolutions, either.

Oh boy. Maybe watching Six Feet Under while writing a new year-themed post wasn't the best idea. Then you come up with a sad, preachy thing instead of a nice, motivating, hopeful post. Because who wants to hear (or read) dark, preachy thoughts when they are trying to start the new year right? (That is - in a good mood?)

And I'm actually in a good mood, despite appearances :-) I started off the year just right, just as I wanted to. And while I know that my bad traits - like being a procrastinator and kind of a control freak - will resurface here and there, I'm hoping that it will be less than last year. And I'm hoping that I can improve myself this year. Because hope, that's what the new year holds, and why we like it so much. Because it tells us there's still hope, that we don't have to give up on our dreams and goals, we can hold onto them and we might just reach them, this year. And what more reason for a celebration could you ask for?