It’s the start of another year…a clean slate…a fresh start.

We’re handed a chance to change the way we eat, pray, love and behave for the next 356 days so that this time next year we can feel a bit better about ourselves.

So won’t feel the need to douse our disappointment in copious amounts of alcohol, and overly rich food that’s an express ticket to type II diabetes.

So we don’t cringe whilst reliving the events of the the past year whilst remembering how how little agency we took in shaping them to be better.

So we don’t wish, once again, that we’d made better, braver choices.

The time we’ve been given is slipping away faster than we realize. It’s ridiculously easy to chug along from year to year, keeping busy with life’s minutiae and ultimately forgetting our life’s purpose.

And make no mistake, we all have a purpose. A particular gift that’s unique to each one that’s needed to make this world the beautiful place it’s meant to be.

It’s easy to see why so many of us are utterly oblivious to our life’s purpose. It’s not easy to find.

It’s not terribly obvious from our academic performance or SAT scores, which is especially disappointing since we put so much of our time and effort toward these.

It’s not distinctly discernible from our bank accounts either, in many cases this can be downright deceptive.

It doesn’t involve scrolling online endlessly or lapping up bromides from celebrities and influencers, again extremely disheartening considering how much of our attention is directed toward this.

It does however need us to look inward and think deeply, not just about what makes us happy but what fulfills us in a way that not much else can.

This is hard because we are socialized to conform and fit into metaphorical boxes of societal expectations and familial pressures. Breaking out of this is hard. And we don’t like hard.

It’s much easier to bury our spirit and go along the path well trodden. This is easy and feels good in the moment.

We like easy, and we absolutely love feeling good in the moment.

It numbs us to the disappointment we feel lurking in the shadows.

We tell ourselves that there will always be time for the hard stuff later. Not realizing that it’s the hard stuff that counts.

That it’s the tough choices we make that push the needle in our lives.

That it’s the scary steps we take that we will be most proud of later.

But those realizations usually elude us now.

And before we know it, the earth takes another spin around the sun and we’re just left spinning, wondering how another year has passed and we are no closer to where we envisioned we would be at this stage of our lives.

So maybe this year, let’s really ring in something new….more creating and less consuming, more action and less ruminating, more hard stuff and less easy stuff.

So that this time next year…we can proudly toast to a year well-lived.

That’s my new years’ wish for you.