I have been observing an intriguing phenomenon that is pretty curious to me. Sometimes people realise that they deserve or can do more, or just feel the need to change their lives. Yet, even though they admit this need, they often fail to satisfy it right away. Instead, they draw some kind of a demarcation line that signifies their New Beginnings.
It seems to be an invisible mental border separating us from beyond, where a better future or a significant change awaits.
For example, I understand that Mondays are often dedicated to fancy new diets. The 1st of January is for quitting bad habits, starting eating greens, training, yoga, using planners, etc. Birthdays are also a critical demarcation line. They can be used to set goals of any kind, depending on the person’s needs.
Life’s hardships and struggles often lead to admitting the need for change, too. And yet, there are again demarcation lines for the new beginning. We can find an excellent example in relationships and, most notably, in their break-ups. It seems that the very end of a relationship becomes the line, beyond which the woman will start seeing herself in a better light, demanding more, outlining her personal boundaries, or learning how to say ‘no’. The same thing happens in the professional field and in other aspects of life, like family and friends.
It remains completely unclear why, if the need for a new beginning is a realised fact, the start is constantly being postponed to an uncertain period in the future. Sometimes people link it to a specific moment: a birthday, New Year, Monday, the summer… Of course, the most logical thing is for it to happen right now, but logic is often absent in taking and carrying out such decisions.
“My new year’s resolution is…”. I have heard this sentence so many times that it sounds almost like a spell. Perhaps I must think of it as of a New Beginnings Spell. It seems that half of humanity gets a burst of awareness on the 31st of December, and this is when we draw the line of the new beginning. The intentions and wishes have probably emerged much earlier, but with the New Beginnings Spell, they are being postponed to the future again. If they don’t come true, they are envisioned again on the next 31st of December, in a new burst of awareness, with a new spell.
This magic has its mighty power over the human mind, but I believe its primary purpose is to confuse. There is a dark side of the New Beginnings Spell: it postpones the change, even if we are long aware of the need for it. That is why the spell is dangerous. It obscures the mind and makes it forget that time is the only value in human life: we can take advantage of it, but we do not own it. It has its own magic, but that’s a whole other story.
I guess that what lies behind procrastination is Fear, or maybe the lack of Confidence to go beyond our comfort zone. Perhaps the reason is that the new beginnings are scary in their very essence: one has to accept the mistakes in the construction of their life, admit them and start rearranging the bricks all over again. It is scary indeed.
However, the important thing is that we should use The New Beginnings Spell wisely. If the first, most challenging step has already been taken, we shouldn’t postpone anything that will make life better, more balanced, and full of awareness. It doesn’t matter how scared we are. The tough part is establishing the need for a change and what this change should be. This is more than half of the way. There is a reason people say that in order to take a thousand steps, you need to make the first. The second step is to start doing things right now. Not from Monday, not for one’s birthday, not on New Year’s Eve. Admit it now, start now and keep walking confidently to your New Beginning. There’s no time to waste.
