New Me, New You? No, thank you

An alternative to New Year's Resolutions

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” - John Lennon¹

The new year brings about a certain pressure to change, to be better, to improve, to set a course for a (hopefully) more successful year - as if we have complete control over what happens in our lives. Anyone who has set goals before can tell you that we do not.

We have control over our actions, but not always the result of those actions.

We have some control over our thoughts, but can’t necessarily get rid of some of them.

We have some ability to control our emotions but even here it gets dicey. Sometimes we just feel what we feel and have to wait for the moment to pass.

But no matter what efforts we make there remains certain things about Life that we cannot control.

Life has it’s own time and momentum which can leave us feeling as if we’re being swept away sometimes. We can only do so much because often we don’t know what’s in store for us no matter how much we plan for it. Life carries risk and uncertainty…