It’s the dawn of a new day, a new year, and a new decade and I’m sure for many of you the promise of a fresh start is exciting and motivating. But why is starting over so appealing? And how can we use this appeal of a clean slate to our advantage each and every single day? Because new beginnings and fresh starts don’t just get to be Mondays or January 1st. You can choose to have a fresh start every single day! But how exactly do you do that and how do you use it to your advantage?
Why a fresh start should excite you
Starting over can give you a sense of empowerment
The idea that we can have a fresh start in life is appealing because it gives us a sense of empowerment. That what we have done before doesn’t have to follow us into this ‘new chapter’ of our lives. On an emotional level, a clean slate may seem like we can conquer anything we set our minds to. We can deliver on the promises to ourselves that whatever dream or goal we have is possible to achieve because somehow tomorrow will be different. And it can be, but we need to be realistic about how change and growth are accomplished.
Why fresh start almost always doesn’t work the way you hope
Life isn’t a simple A to B journey
The rush of emotion that comes with a fresh start, a new goal and a new dream is powerful and not to be ignored. But it needs to be fueled from a place of acknowledgment – whatever your goal or dream, getting from A to B will not be as simple as you anticipate.
Life is not a straight line, at times it can be the gentle bobbing of a boat on the ocean kind of small ups and downs but progressing in the right direction. And other times life is more like an extreme rollercoaster ride with loops and upside-down portions. This is why the fresh start alone cannot sustain you long enough for you to reach your goal.
Read more about how to hang on to your dreams when you’re riding the rollercoaster of life.
We have invisible barriers and habits that remain
Relying on the momentum of starting over will get you on the pathway to change but there are many things that will sabotage your journey to your dreams. And none is worse than your self. The problem with relying on starting over to carry you through to accomplishing a dream or a new goal is that tomorrow you will still you and you’ll still be you every day after that.
Of course, it’s nice to think that tomorrow if we can just start again on Monday that we’ll be able to sustain the changes we want to make in our lives and reach our goals.
Whether the change is eating better or reading more, spending time with our kids, or running a marathon, being better person… or anything else you can to dream of. The hope that a fresh start will somehow remove or reduce the effect of our past habits and invisible barriers on us achieving our dreams this time is powerful.
Read our post dedicated to how to overcome invisible barriers.
We all want to believe that just by starting a new week or a new year that all the difficulties from our past cease to be a problem. And they may do it for a short time. Unfortunately, our bad habits, our past, and our own self-sabotage can still affect us if we haven’t directly dealt with these issues.
So how do we make our dreams a reality and use the momentum of a fresh in a way that works to our advantage?
If you want to use your fresh start to your advantage – have a plan
Some of our problems require constant maintenance in order for us to move forward. And we must be ready to deal with our bad habits and the cause of our invisible barriers every step of the journey. We need to have a plan to identify the roadblocks getting in our way that we are creating and then consciously deal with the cause of these.
Starting over is not about forgetting everything you know and everything you are. Because that just isn’t realistic. What is realistic is the empowerment that it gives us and we can use that to really make significant and long-lasting changes in our lives if we make a commitment to persisting through the hard times and breaking through those barriers and bad habits.
Start from where you are
It’s also important and really key to realize that you can only start from where you are, not from where you wish you were. Anything you want to achieve will take time to get there but you can do it! Read more about the mindset required to start from where you are today!
We need to realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day and so everything we want in life including accomplishing our goals and living our dreams takes time.
The habits we have learned over the years have become easy for us to continue to repeat, they are ingrained in us. And it will take time to unlearn some of these. But we don’t have to wait until next year or next month or next week to start.
Choose to make every day a fresh start
I know it’s scary to go after what you want but the time is now to start. Don’t wait for the ‘right’ moment, or Monday. You can choose today and every day after that to be your fresh start. Every new day is another chance and it’s yours to do with what you will.
So, treat every day as a fresh start. Learn from the past and plan for the future but make every moment you have now count! Do this and you will be living your dreams and working toward your goals. You will be tackling your problems and your invisible barriers and the reasons you self-sabotage instead of putting them off for tomorrow.
Don’t procrastinate living your life!
Live it now. Ride the waves and the rollercoaster, fight the internal wars that need to be fought. Start loving yourself and don’t wait for tomorrow.
Embrace the fact that you can reach your goals but it will take time and effort and you cannot give up. Yes, you may have good days and bad ones. Yes, life may throw you some curveballs and test your resolve to get to where you want to go. But you can get there.
So, use the momentum of your daily fresh start to allow you to take charge of your life and be your own superhero… read more on how here!