You don't need the new year to make change

Everyone is going to do new year resolution gym and business posts, but those don't really do much

Fun image generated by Open-AI Dall-E of cyberpunk city NYE celebration

The confetti has settled, the champagne flutes rinsed, and resolutions were made by many young hopeful friends and colleagues. The first sunrise of the New Year whispers a familiar refrain: "This is it. This is the year I finally…" We embark on journeys of self-improvement, vowing to shed unwanted habits like last year's sequins, only most will find themselves, months later, still clinging to what they were doing in 2023. As the famous U2 song goes: nothing changes on New Year’s Day.

But what if the very premise of our annual pledge-a-thon is misguided? What if the idea that change hinges on the arbitrary turn of the calendar is holding us hostage to procrastination and self-doubt? As the great Roman poet Ovid reminds us, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." Why, then, do we stubbornly plant seeds of personal evolution only in the freshly tilled soil of January, leaving the rest of the year to chance?

The date could be today. But it could be any day you elect to make change and are serious about it. I personally quit drinking alcohol on October 30 of 2022. I know the date for a few reasons, it’s unimportant to go through them in this post, but what became clear was alcohol was simply not improving my life. Whether socially or to relax, the cons had begun to outweigh any remaining pros. I also took that opportunity to (with MD approval) go off all pharmaceuticals at the same time, which remember just because they’re prescribed by a physician and FDA-approved doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ‘good’ for you in the long term. We get a lot wrong at the institutional and personal level, but nothing is unfixable when you’re willing to take control and have the right mentorship.

January of course does have vibes of renewal, a blank canvas we can paint our ideal selves or at least slightly better versions of it. You could use the new year as a catalyst, but change, true and lasting change, rarely erupts like fireworks at the stroke of midnight. It's a quiet, persistent undercurrent, a slow erosion of our comfortable ruts, a gradual unfolding of new potential.

Imagine the absurdity of a gardener waiting for the New Year to sow seeds. Nature understands the rhythm of growth, it’s literally baked into the code. Spring doesn't magically arrive on a predetermined date, it blooms after the silent labor of roots stretching toward the sun, buds yearning for warmth. Likewise, our personal transformations deserve the same respect. The calendar year can help guide them but it is less necessary than we think. We have agency, but we must summon it.

I started to learn to garden last year and put in planters in our yard, I find it therapeutic and also fulfilling. I’m still of course really new at it.

Let us cast off the shackles of the calendar and embrace the fluidity of time — change doesn't require the fanfare of fireworks or the pressure of resolutions. It asks only for a willing heart, a curious mind, and the courage to set forth on a new path. You will also likely have to let some things go. That’s okay, too. Soon you won’t miss anything, FOMO is purely a mental construct and anyway a new and better life will fill the space.

None of this means abandoning personal goals or aspirations. Instead, it's about freeing ourselves from the tyranny of artificial deadlines and embracing the continuous flow of growth. And anyway, you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems and processes. So make them better and iteratively improve upon them, however you can.

Hope you all have a great 2024.