A new year is always a fresh clean slate. Or at least people like to believe so. New Year resolutions flood the gyms doors, quit that dirty habit programs double in registration, alcohol sales shrink (for the first few months), and budgeting programs/planners double with the hopes that it will help them get out of debt or learn to be more money conscious. Call me cynical or what you want, but just because a new year has arrived doesn't make the problems in your life any easier to fix. Of course, there are the few people who actually truly want change and try everything they can, with an enormous amount of dedication, carry out the changes they want to see. Change is not instant. You can't enter a new year and think, "self, i am going to try to be healthier and lose 15lbs." go to the gym for 2 months and then quit; especially when it comes to changing things about yourself. Life changing resolutions such as the 'i am going to quit smoking/drinking this year' are massive changes. Rarely does one sit and say 'I will quit in 2011' just because. I believe that a person needs to reach their own rock bottom before they can make a solid effort to change. Its like when young high schoolers think they don't want to go to university or something. That they are happy to just work away in a factory forever, even though the potential for them is endless. They must self destruct and loose a lot before they realize they have made a mistake. OR something significant has happened in their life to make them want change, such a death in the family from health issues. With any dramatic change it is largely dependent on your own motivation and determination. But don't get me wrong, I do believe in possibility of change in the new year, it just needs to be realistic. What is my own new years resolution you ask? Undecided. There are a few things I would like to refine and tweak in my life. One would be to slow down. Most of these I'm sure have been mentioned in previous moments of thinking out loud - but life is too hectic. Life in North America moves quickly, always a constant need for improvement. Life in Europe is different, and I have been trying to adopt that momentum. But let me tell you, not easy to do at all. At least not for me. Sounds simple in theory, but after 24 years of the same system, its hard to pull the plug on that life. But it definitely makes for a happier life. And a happy life, a calm soul, are things that make life worth living. Numero dos - realize that I cannot see the world in a month and plan accordingly and realistically. We have a plan. Save save save during the winter months and travel as much as we can come the spring and summer. This is very possible. It was hard to come over my issues - the fact that I moved to this country to travel. period. Or I can work at home and make money and then come to the UK to travel. My purpose is to travel. And we now have a plan to make that possible :)
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| Blue Lagoon |
Now, as for our 2011 celebration - barely spent anything and had an amazing time :) Being in a new city was already something new for us. New Year celebrations are greatly overrated. You spend hundreds of dollars or pounds on what? So you can buy a new outfit that you will probably only wear this once, to buy tickets to a bar that jam packed with 500 other sweaty drunks, so you can wait in line for an hour at a time to grab drinks, and then pay triple for a cab ride home. Oh and not remember any of it the next day. crazy. We on the other hand did the complete opposite. We headed into town, grabbed a fab pitcher of blue lagoon for £6, watched some fireworks with hundreds of others, enjoyed a walk home together, then popped into a little party at our neighbours, and then curled up into our couch bed and watched movies till the wee hours of the morning :) We spent January 1, 2011 just relaxing together. Call it what you want, but we enjoyed ourselves. I suppose it kind of set the mode for our year of relaxing. Good kick start I think :) All change must first begin with one thing....
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| At Whiterspoons |
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
~ Aristotle ~
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