The year 2017 is coming to a close and we can see 2018 on the horizon. This transition is nothing new, it happens annually. We know the drill.
Memes will bash 2017 for a while, saying how we will never miss it. Eventually we will give 2018 a hard time and start looking forward to 2019.
Why is that?
What does a 12 month cycle really have to do with starting fresh? The biggest world wide change we experience is a digit moving up in marking what year it is.
To reward, to “start new”, to celebrate. It’s our nature. No matter if it makes perfect sense to celebrate the start of 12 new months, it is celebrated and with that celebration, traditionally comes resolutions.
New Year’s resolutions are the promises we make to ourselves yearly or the promises we are supposed to make in order to better our lives, to become better.
These promises may look something like: “I will work out for half an hour everyday”, “I will take time every morning to meditate”, “I will write for a minimum of 10 minutes everyday”, “I will only eat carbs on weekends”.
These are all great plans. I wish I could say that I do all of these things and do them without fault. But that is not the case.
Now I know there are some amazing people out there who do stick with these promises made to better themselves. You are amazing. Keep on keeping on.
As for the rest of us who have a harder time keeping these promises, we have some thinking to do.
First, I would like to bring to your attention the fact that humans are imperfect. In fact, we are very far from perfect. This means that the promises we make also have the tendency to be broken.
Personally, I hate that feeling. Not following through with the things I said I would do.
Instead of setting myself up for a whole year of failure, due to an unkept resolution I have given myself a different mindset:
Do your moment’s best.
This means that if the best you can do at this moment is to skip dessert, do that. If the best you can do at this moment is to workout while you watch Netflix, do it. If the best you can do right now is to be gracious to the driver ahead of you who seems to be lost, be that.
Maybe you are reading this thinking “Well that sounds simple enough” and you aren’t wrong, these are simple tasks, but they aren’t easy. The concept of always doing your best is very straightforward but are you able to will yourself to do better always?
There is something missing from this system. Did you catch it? There is no reward. No consistent or visible reward system anyways.
Reward systems are the way we were trained as children. It’s how we get through hours of studying or changing our diets. We want results and reasons to do what we are doing.
With a public New Year’s resolution, you can post your progress on social media. You can receive praise and encouragement. With the goal of doing your best always, it is difficult for others to give you recognition.
Are you ok with that?
There are still good reasons to always do your best.
It will improve that moment for you and possibly others unknowingly involved. You will also be teaching yourself greater habits.
Which is sort of the point of this. Seeking to do your best will become habitual. If that is a good enough of a reward system for you, I hope you do get started right away! If you need more convincing, continue reading.
Doing your moment’s best means that you try your best as you are working at the office, being kind to the waitress at lunch, driving carefully, focusing on your child as they tell you about their math teacher and relaxing at the end of a long day. The purposeful decision to do your best effects so many people!
Concerning long term thinking, I believe that doing your moment’s best means allowing opportunities to come as they are and to give each situation that comes, (you guessed it) your very ✨best.✨
Do you think I’ve repeated myself enough times? ?
I know that many of you are already doing your best in all that life throws at you. Thank you for that. I encourage you to encourage the people in your life. If not verbally, then through your actions and attitude, as we all know those speak louder than words ever could.
So go, be the change even if it isn’t obvious or notable, do your moment’s best.
Tess Houcher
