Somebody said to me over the Christmas break, that Christmas and New Year are a bit of a let down when you’ve grown past the age where you genuinely get excited. And all this ‘New Year’s Resolution stuff is crap they told me, because people will only really change when they want to.
Well, it’s true that this year I wasn’t really bothered about Christmas as a whole, the presents, the decoration, the tinsel and bells. I never saw any mistletoe, but that’s a different story.
This year, I was more interested about what the break would bring me. Quality time to spend with friends I’ve not managed to give much time to this year. Good conversation with family, who during the rest of the year I either end up (through nobody’s particular fault) in a different room from, or (horrendously) viewing as a distraction to another more important thing I’m engaged with – when in reality none exists.
I also know from personal experience, that the singular decision to make your life different, is a greater shift than any half-baked New Year’s Resolution you happen to come up with. That much of what the unnamed said is true. But, I’m not sure that the festive season is completely without its seasonal merits, and I’ve kind of the feeling that the two aspects of that little time off – celebration (whether genuine or otherwise) and the simultaneous feelings of freedom and community membership – deliver what we tend to forget as soon as we step back into our normal routines.
It’s not that any of it is shallow or fake, proved because we return to our old habits just as soon as we set our alarms. It’s that we think that the break’s liberties and enjoyments are the break’s alone.
We shouldn’t. During my little break, I pinpointed a few of my own failings in my ‘normal’ day to day life, each of which is a direct consequence of my general ignorance towards some of the things that make me happy around Christmas and New Year. Something so simple as: ‘if I have an early night, I won’t be tired in the morning, I won’t have to rush for my train, and so in turn I won’t be in a down mood before my day’s even really begun. Simple common sense, but otherwise ignored except when allowed to lounge in bed until my body-clock seems fit to wake me up after, say nine hours sleep, not six or seven day after week after month.
It’s simple, really. You look at why you were happier over the holiday, and do what you can to adjust to accommodate more of those things.
It’s simple, I say, and yet I’ve only just thought of it.
Hope you’re well, things this end are going nicely.
Kev
Right then…let’s really get on with it
Somebody said to me over the Christmas break, that Christmas and New Year are a bit of a let down when you’ve grown past the age where you genuinely get excited. And all this ‘New Year’s Resolution stuff is crap they told me, because people will only really change when they want to.
Well, it’s true that this year I wasn’t really bothered about Christmas as a whole, the presents, the decoration, the tinsel and bells. I never saw any mistletoe, but that’s a different story.
This year, I was more interested about what the break would bring me. Quality time to spend with friends I’ve not managed to give much time to this year. Good conversation with family, who during the rest of the year I either end up (through nobody’s particular fault) in a different room from, or (horrendously) viewing as a distraction to another more important thing I’m engaged with – when in reality none exists.
I also know from personal experience, that the singular decision to make your life different, is a greater shift than any half-baked New Year’s Resolution you happen to come up with. That much of what the unnamed said is true. But, I’m not sure that the festive season is completely without its seasonal merits, and I’ve kind of the feeling that the two aspects of that little time off – celebration (whether genuine or otherwise) and the simultaneous feelings of freedom and community membership – deliver what we tend to forget as soon as we step back into our normal routines.
It’s not that any of it is shallow or fake, proved because we return to our old habits just as soon as we set our alarms. It’s that we think that the break’s liberties and enjoyments are the break’s alone.
We shouldn’t. During my little break, I pinpointed a few of my own failings in my ‘normal’ day to day life, each of which is a direct consequence of my general ignorance towards some of the things that make me happy around Christmas and New Year. Something so simple as: ‘if I have an early night, I won’t be tired in the morning, I won’t have to rush for my train, and so in turn I won’t be in a down mood before my day’s even really begun. Simple common sense, but otherwise ignored except when allowed to lounge in bed until my body-clock seems fit to wake me up after, say nine hours sleep, not six or seven day after week after month.
It’s simple, really. You look at why you were happier over the holiday, and do what you can to adjust to accommodate more of those things.
It’s simple, I say, and yet I’ve only just thought of it.
Hope you’re well, things this end are going nicely.
Kev