The New Year marks a convenient time to make a fresh start but why do we always wait for New Year’s Eve to get all motivated to create change in our lives? I’ve spent one too many ruts waiting for inspiration and must perpetually remind myself that opportunities for new beginning are everywhere. As you read this I am finishing up my final weeks sailing and look forward to the fresh start that awaits me on land. With about every return, I vow to embrace shore life with fresh food and more cardio. Pacing the deck and living off canned goods for weeks on end are great motivation for establishing new healthy habits. But true to form, a few weeks back home will likely find me slipping into old routines. It doesn’t matter if I’m at land or sea; I’m forever toggling with ideas for my new and improved lifestyle.

The desire to create a lifestyle change is a pattern I know all too well. I’m also accustom to making excuses and falsely attributing my lack of follow-through on circumstance rather than initiative. The good thing about aging though is time often reveals such lessons and we can relax in knowing that we are often our biggest obstacles. Blame becomes a bore and these days I’d rather just get on with the fix. But what is the fix? And how do you fix a problem you can’t entirely identify? Why can’t I commit?

As much as we create goals and commit to new routines they result to nothing without commitment. It’s unrealistic to assume we engage with a steel resolve. As soon as I fall from my wagon of “change” I often lose momentum and give-up. This brings me to the wagon itself. The hardest part is always getting back on the wagon. Time moves along and that wagon keeps with it, leaving us to chase it down when motivation strikes. But rather than constantly seek-out motivation to inspire our fresh starts I’ve found it much easier to identify all the fresh starts that exist. Fresh start are everywhere and if you can embrace the pattern of beginning again, you’ll have better luck in the long run of living that wagon lifestyle of your dreams.

Opportunities For A Fresh Start:

1. Physical Time

   Be it day, week, month, year, season, or moon cycle, physical time creates opportunities for you to begin again. Back when I worked in an office I lived by a monthly calendar. We had appointments and deadlines and all sorts of stuff related to scheduling that required a monthly planning perspective. My life as a caregiver however tossed that method out the window. I found it much better to organize my caregiving time by the days themselves, otherwise a sense of nothingness consumed me. The significant reduction in external accountability made time slow to a frustrating crawl. It took years for me to realize I needed to adjust my relationship with time management. I needed to break the feelings of endlessness as a caregiver in order to establish a meaningful sense of purpose. What worked for me was establishing themes for the days of the week where each day had it’s own focus but would repeat week after week. The cyclical nature of this caregiver schedule diminished the nothingness of time passing and instituted a distinct purpose on the daily. It was a life saver at the time and a strategy I still implement when I feel a rut headed my way..

2. Physical Space

   You know that annoying advice about managing frustration by changing your perspective? Ugh… ya! As if it were so easy… We can’t just flip a switch and suddenly have a new frame of mind. Our mental health and emotional well being is often internalized feels that are out of our control. Fortunately though, we can control aspects of our physical environments so one of the quickest routes to gaining a new perspective is to change the physical space. I don’t mean pack up and move as that’s likely not realistic. However, do consider moving something. Move the couch, swap the chair, switch the rug, rearrange the drawers, hang a plant… Do something to reorganize your physical space so that it breaks your auto pilot pattern. Seriously, sitting in the same chair but in a different corner of the room will absolutely offer you a change in perspective. It might cater less to binge watching Netflix and more to reading, and that simple behavior change might make all the difference in how your days unfold. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve rearrange the various rooms of my house hoping to find a floor plan that adds a better flow to daily life. Reshuffling the items in the kitchen cabinets always requires some getting used to and the adjustment phase serves as the disruptor that frees me from feeling like things are the same old same. Yeah, as expected those feelings tend to be fleeting but never the less, a refreshed sense of space can do wonders for a bad mood. Sometimes you just need things to feel different and what better way to tackle that by making a space physically different.

3. Physical Self

   Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can’t just go changing our physical selves but actually, we can! As much as we are who we are, we are given chances daily to adjust ourselves. Much of it’s in superficial ways but if you’re looking for change anything counts. Trust me on this ladies. If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to head out in public without a bra on and I promise you, your day will be different. Personally, I’m not up for that kind of different so I’ll stick to these lower risk options:

• Shower- What can be more symbolic of a fresh start than a freaking shower! I’m sure you were hoping for more here but let’s not make new beginnings harder than necessary. Just take a shower and wash away some of those feelings of stagnation. I’ve often joked about doing some of my best thinking in the bathroom but I think it comes from the abrupt sensory stimulation due to water rushing over me. I’m not sure what kind of neurotransmitters are firing as my skin adjust to the water temperature but there is a parasympathetic response of some kind that juice for my creativity. Whenever I don’t know what to do with myself, I take a shower and somehow emerge more content with life. I feel so strongly about this that one year, I actually made taking morning showers my New Year’s Resolution. I became a “Morning Showerer” . Exciting right? Why shoots for the stars when I can shoot for the shower and feel just as accomplished? And did I stick with it you ask? Noooooo… Of course I did not! Not in that always on the wagon lifestyle kind-of way… The truth is, I default to night showers which is fine but this resolution was not failure. Morning showers mesh fantastically with my approach to organizing by day. I have made a habit of taking Monday Morning Showers. I find it to be a sense of compounded freshness in that the fresh start of the week gets a fresh version of me, and if there is any chance I’ll grab hold of that wagon and hoist myself upon it, it’s more likely to happen on this day.

• Hair- Are you familiar with the expression “change your part, change your life”? I can’t say anyone really says this but I encourage you to give it try anyway. I mean, assuming you are going to follow these brilliant tips I’m suggesting, what better time to try out a new part than after a shower? Am I right? Seriously, just try it, even if you feel yourself cringing at your reflection. That feeling of discomfort is likely because it’s new and different but as you encounter the folks of your inner circle they’ll probably all ask you “what’s different?”

• Accessorize- … Intentionally! Ok, here’s the thing. I actually heard this on a podcast, which I would share but I didn’t really like it other than this one takeaway tip about personal style. Pick one intentional item to wear on any given day. This can be be anything. You can pick shoes, earrings, a shirt, belt, whatever, but identify the thing as the thing you are being intentional about. The rest can be a free-for-all of the half-hazard look of your choice. That part is not important. The point of this exercise is you intentionally made a choice and and acted on it. That identified item means you had to work everything else around it and reinforces the belief that you can take personal initiative and make a fresh start.

Alright folks, that’s it for now. I hope you feel a bit more inspired to make a fresh start whatever that is for you. Mine is on a slight delay as I await for my next, new beginning when I rejoin life as a landlubber. I am supposed to arrive home on January 10th which is a Sunday, so you can just imagine the glorious return I am in for! I’m returning this new year at the start of a new week. Praise be! If you need me, I’ll be in the shower!