Welcome 2023!
Dear Readers,
The New Year bring with it an inherent promise of hope. There’s a subconscious sense of positive anticipation that lies within this feeling of newness when we hang up a new calendar and look forward to the excitement and opportunities that lie in the next 12 brand new months and 365 fresh, new days.
While the shine of a new year does not blind us to new challenges, we can’t deny there’s something psychologically energising about a new year – the suggestion of a fresh start… or a start over… a new slate. Hope reigns eternal. It is with this hope that we excitedly get down to making New Year resolutions, looking to either continue last year’s successful streak of accomplishing the goals we had set for ourselves, or then, to renew those unrealised goals and set new ones, in the hope that this is the year we will achieve them.
Truth is – resolutions don’t bring about change. New actions and new habits do – which means, before you set out to work on your goals, you need to first work on consolidating your mindset and building a strong attitude which will get you through the rest of the year, after the initial 3-week motivation and excitement has faded away.
Viktor Frankl, neurologist, psychiatrist and author of ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’, said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Hope for this new year can be found in the meaning we create in our lives and the purpose we decide to pursue, whether becoming a better person or healthier or more financially sound or career oriented, rather than falling back on old habits.
This year, let’s hold on to the promise of what comes next by imbibing the lessons learnt in the past couple of years, holding on to what works, and seeking new solutions for what didn’t.
Have a great start to the New Year and a lovely weekend!
– Anahita
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