With the start of a brand new year, it’s safe to say the most overused four words in any language are; “this is my year.” On their own, these four words are pretty boring and pretty basic. On their own, they’re just a pronoun, a verb, an adjective, and a noun, but together, they are like a superhero. I read those words, and all I can hear is, Wonder Quadruplet powers activate, shape of HOPE and POSITIVITY. History has shown the power of words, but in this case, I don’t buy it. I question the legitimacy of not the words, but the person saying them.

Side Note: FOR SUPERHERO GEEKS, I understand the non-existence of a superhero with the moniker Wonder Quadruplets, so save your nerd comments. These are fictitious character created by me, for me, to be used for analogy and comedic purposes. In the unlikely event that these characters do exist, please disregard this side note.

Anywho… As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by the superhero geeks.

The yearly ritual of regurgitating these four words is at best an attempt to make us feel good about the “awful” year before. In reality, the year before wasn’t as awful as we think, it’s was just the same year playing over and over and over again. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how certain things like death can define a year as awful, but I’m speaking as it relates to individuals. If you think about your life, your job, your relationship and compare it to the previous years, what do you think you’ll find? I found a mirror image of the previous year, followed by a mirror image of the year before that. What I didn’t see, was the most important thing and the true problem, Me. Why can we see “awful” clear as day, but can’t see the solution right under our noses? The power to change is always ours to use, but instead, we blame everything and everyone around us. In A.A. we call that the Alcoholics Opera, I, I, I, Me, Me, Me.

By saying these simple four words “this is my year,” we unconsciously register our brains to participate in a bizarre déjà vu experiment of failure. My point, do we really believe it’s going to be our year? If I had a dollar for every time I said it; I would be rich. Actually, that’s not true at all, after doing the math I would have around twenty dollars. I’m 51 now, so I’m going to base my figures on the average person saying “this is my year” from age 30 on? It’s not like you’ll ever hear this from a ten-year-old. If a ten-year-old says “This is my year,” that would be one of the most frightening and suspect statement out of their young mouths. When a thirty-year-old says it, it’s not frightening or suspect at all; it’s almost positive and hopeful. I don’t think it’s positive or hopeful, I think it’s BULLSHIT. It’s useless and meaningless without the will to make it happen.

The only thing more useless and meaningless as “this is my year” is the human favorite called the “New Year Resolution.” It is said that the ancient Babylonians are the first people to use New Year’s Resolutions some 4000 years ago. For those of you playing the home game, that’s solid proof that humans have been lying to themselves for a staggering number of years. I may be wrong, but research and you’ll see that even 4000 years ago, gym memberships were sold at an alarming rate in January to excited people ready to work out and have a new start. I can’t confirm nor deny evidence showing that some people continued the gym resolution lie for almost four months before quitting the idea of health and change and happiness and stuff like that.  Four months is not bad considering today’s “New Year Resolution/This is my year” waste of money gym membership will yield MAYBE two months of commitment before one realizes two fundamental things; 1- inevitable resolution failure and 2- loss of money funding said failed resolution. 

I don’t know much, but I do know this, if you’re going to put a January 1st stop date on a bad habit such as addiction, cheating, being an asshole etc,  in hopes that the New Year’s Resolution/This is my year fairy is going to make everything better, you’re not  ready to change a damn thing. If you wanted to be in shape, you would be in shape. If you wanted to get off drugs, you would get off drugs. (I speak of drugs from my experience as an addict) If you wanted to stop cheating, you would stop cheating.  If you want to stop being an asshole, you would not be an asshole.

No matter what you’re telling yourself, the reality is what you seek starts with you. Not a year, not a day, not an hour, just little old you.  Any day works for that. I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true. Think about what the great philosopher Forrest Gump once said about running for three years. I ate when I was hungry; I slept when I was tired and then one day, I decided to stop running. He didn’t say, my new year’s resolution was to stop running, he just stopped. If you decide to change what is awful about your life, I wish you nothing but the best.  If you’re not going to change, then don’t change, but at the very least stop lying to yourself. Using the 4000-year-old ritual of New Year’s Resolutions and “This is my year,” will set you up for the inevitable; another “awful” year.