why today (New Year's Day) matters
Whatever your opinion of temporal landmarks might be, the reality is they are a productive tool that’s mostly harmless and underutilized.
If you aren’t familiar with the term, temporal landmarks are seemingly significant dates on a calendar that suggest a fresh start and new beginning. Today is one such day.
The first day of the year is a divider that separates your past from your future, mentally at least. This divider is an opportunity for most people to wipe their slates clean, regroup, and start afresh.
In some ways, it is.
But there’s a school of thought that argues that this way of thinking about specific dates gives us false hope about the future without properly addressing the behaviors and habits that need to be tweaked or learned to get us closer to our desired goals.
In some ways, that’s true.
Yet, I’m not sure I see the harm in being aspirational a few times a year.
Considering how much we all go through daily and over time, marking a date or two on our calendars as moments for respite and opportunities for new beginnings bodes well for our mental health, if nothing else. It gives us something to look forward to and a reason to keep going.
Even more, days like today, yesterday (New Year's Eve), birthdays, anniversaries, etc., are reminders to pause and be grateful for how far we have come.
Recognizing these temporal landmarks motivates us to want more and do everything we can to be more.
They can help us to be more productive and decisive with our time, talents, and dollars.
People say, ‘It’s the hope that kills you,’ and they aren’t wrong. Trust me, I know. I’m an Arsenal fan.
But I also believe hope is worth living for. The way I see it, hope is everything that happens between birth and death. Hope is life and vice versa.
Temporal landmarks, like today, matter because they give us hope. They breathe new life into our existence and give us another reason to keep going. They are a productive tool, and it’s up to us to wield it as best as we can.
Stay hopeful. Happy New Year.
I recently published episode 00 of a podcast series called by the week.
Much like these letters, by the week is a weekly unfiltered podcast that attempts to capture the most meaningful moments of my week and life as a writer, husband, father, and, you know, human being.
Watch episode 00 of by the week
Yes, we can
— Barack Obama