Despite what movies preach, remaining New Years optimistic takes work
I love starting a new year. I love the feeling of optimism and motivation – justified or not – that comes with the stroke of midnight. In the movies, everyone counts down, the couple kisses and magically everyone’s lives end up better and everyone is happy. The credits roll and we all buy in. It’s the magic of New Year.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in the movies and life doesn’t always work out that way. Happily isn’t always ever after and those well-intentioned resolutions often end up unrealized.
For example, my annual resolution to smile more is always more challenging than expected. As it turns out, it actually requires effort and a willingness to create opportunities to smile more. It doesn’t just happen because I said it. Who would have thought?
Those cinematic happy endings wrap way before the kissing couple fights over how to properly load the dishwasher, one of them loses their job, financial struggles set in, and real life problems that do not come with a shower of confetti and a champagne toast appear.
Nevertheless, I begin each year with overwhelming optimism. I want to do all the things. I want to be more active, help more people, tell all my friends Happy Birthday on their actual birthdays, be more industrious, learn Spanish, teach myself how to play the guitar, focus more on financial responsibility and, yes, smile more.
I may be trying to do too much.
Because eventually the first week of January rolls around and I’m still too busy to get to the gym like I want to. I can barely help myself much less others, I’ve missed eight friends’ birthdays, I’m too holiday exhausted to be industrious, and a couple of auto-pays that I forgot about wiped out my bank account.
Who wants to smile after all that?
I kid. It’s not that bad. But even though the calendar has turned, the obstacles remain the same. I have this weird thought that I can just say I want to do these things and somehow, I’m going to find myself in a “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”-type montage where I just start putting my life back together and I’m a new man at the end of the movie.
Life doesn’t work that way. We actually have to do the work – in spite of the obstacles. I know, it’s so unfair.
Recently, I saw a friend of mine post that she was proud that she achieved every personal goal that she set for 2024. I guess I was surprised people actually do that. But, of course, they do. They do it every day. They do it by trying and working and then trying some more. Someone told me today that their word for 2025 is consistency. There is your answer. Set plans to meet your goal whether it be to lose weight, invest money or smile more. Then, be consistent.
Remember life is not movie magic. Life is work. But, if the work is consistent, it pays dividends. Happy New Year.
Now, get to work.