In With The New & Out With The Old

That’s an expression I can well remember from my childhood. I still hear it from time to time. But not that often anymore.

When we think about New Year’s we often hope that the succeeding year will be a better one; especially if the passing year wasn’t what we had hoped for. Rarely does time explicitly mark a good year from a bad year. It just doesn’t work that way.

In her Christmas speech from The Throne in 1992 (the year of Princess Diana’s untimely death) Queen Elizabeth II called the passing year her annus horribilis. I’m sure for all concerned it was a horribly difficult year to get through. So much changed that year for the Royals.

Yet even though 1992 was not the year they had planned, or wished for, they poured their energies into moving forward immediately without waiting for 1993. There were two young lads who needed some reason to get up in the morning again. They needed to find a new normal.

Fast forward some 23 years, that annus horribilis, as terrible as it was has transformed the Royal Family, Great Britain’s view of the Royal Family, how the Royal Family would respond in-turn to such events in the future, and how events like that accident are broadcast. I recall that, for the most part, the media coverage had a very respectful air to it. I know it wasn’t 100% so. But then again, there will always be those who are out to make the big buck for the perfect shot or story.

I doubt, though, that when Queen Elizabeth II named that year, that she really believed that January 1, 1993 would be the dividing line that would make everything go back to normal. The truth is that nothing went back to normal ever again. The Royals, the country, the world changed at that moment and nothing was the same afterward. We all found a new normal.

There is so much that can be said about a global consciousness or other spiritual or philosophical ideas. I’ll leave that for another time, perhaps. Princess Diana’s death was just one example of this principal, and probably the first person to affect the global consciousness in such an impactful way. Other events that did this were the precursors to both world wars, many smaller wars, the depression, the Nazi rise and fall, etc. But the way Princess Diana’s death affected the world had very different results as compared to the others just mentioned. But like I said, that’s for another blog post.

What I really want to drive home today is that the marker we call New Year’s Day, today, January 1, 2015, isn’t really a game changing moment. It is actually just another day in the life of….(you fill in the blank). Today is usually used for the start of New Year’s Resolutions like dieting, exercise, ending habits, making those changes that we so very much want. We have all done it and all discovered that these promises to ourselves seldom have the results we want or need.

Take the example of the alcoholic or addict. How many do you know of actually marked January 1 as the game changer for them? What happened, or changed, happened and changed in the moment that they realized that change was not only necessary, but attainable.

It is exactly the same for any other ordinary or extraordinary life changing moment; it happens because we are present in the present. We release the past and the future and choose to live in the moment, the present. That is the aha! moment. That is the game changer.

So if you are looking to make a change in your life. Realize that it doesn’t happen today just because it’s January 1, 2015. It happens because you are in the moment, letting go of all the pain of the past and the dreams for the future. You can still use January 1 as that marker. In fact if that was your plan anyhow, do it! But don’t place any magic or power in this date. Place it in the truth that is yours in this moment, forever more.

In With The New & Out With The Old