The Changeling
For what ever it’s worth, 2024 has been a very neutral start to the year. At least for myself. It might be cliche to say, but that doesn’t make it any less true, that 2024 is not unlike any of the years that proceeded it. Is that not true of all years in their January infancy? After everyone gets past the cascade of the holidays, the champagne, party hats, and the paper noise makers of New Year’s, the bill of life eventually becomes due. The parties end, and it is a return to the natural state of responsibilities, mundane jobs in some cases, and the general minutia associated with day to day living.
That is not to say there is anything wrong with that. It is simply a natural circle of life. It is what it is. It is sort of a collected melancholy that envelopes everyone in a sort of misty cloud that can’t easily be defined. Usually, more so in the northern regions, the post holiday swell is compounded by the deep freeze of January. Typically, but not always, January is the darkest and coldest of months. Physicists will explain that the Earth has passed the Winter Solstice and the days are growing in length, but these are only technicalities. In practice it is still dark early, and it won’t be until February that the lengthening daylight becomes perceptible. The biting truth is when the average high doesn’t break 20 Fahrenheit, when you wake to temperatures near zero Fahrenheit, the days are anything but long. They can be sharp, poignant, and unforgiving. That is the harsh reality that flies in the face of physics.
None of this is new. It has existed as long as the Earth has been spinning, but while the new year for some offers a fresh outlook, a new perspective, the fact is once the post New Year’s grind has established firm footing we collectively slip back into our routines like a comfortable, warn, pair of loafers. Which, is where I currently find myself. I was under the weather for a few days recently, and it made me reassess a larger perspective. People are obsessed with change. Politicians seeking office speak of it at nausea, but in practical terms a question needs to be raised, is change actually needed? Perhaps yes? Perhaps no. Or perhaps what is being implied, but not stated, is that targeted change is what is necessary? While everyone and their politicians herald change it sometimes comes at the cost of the value of stability. Too much of anything is no good either, and to speak of blanketed change and adjusting too many dials is no way to troubleshoot anything.
A new year is a logical break for change, but the change must be identified, and not simply change for change sake. It’s not dissimilar to cutting taxes. Politicians love to speak of cutting taxes, but the reality comes quickly of what are you going to do to cover the shortfall? No one asks their boss to cut their pay. That doesn’t help the monthly bill budget. Why then are we cutting taxes? Simply because no politician ever got elected on a platform of no change and tax freezes. So we meander aimlessly on empty solutions to mounting problems.
Which brings us back to our individual behavior. Change for change sake. Diets that fail before January is over, and the law of diminishing returns on investment. The best way to handle something is small incremental change in a specific area. Localized, targeted, and achievable so that one can give themselves a gold star. It’s not about doing without, it can be about doing with less if you’re looking to limit something. Cold turkey situations also rarely survive the frozen days of January. It’s also part of establishing a pattern of behavior. A routine. Whereby once the music of January 1 stops, and we all return to our collective day-to-days, we have a better routine in place than we had previous. Now effective change has been put into place, and it will be scarcely noticeable because we’ve accepted as part of our regular day. A meaningful solution that will provide strength against what ever the new year throws against us. Collectively past unmitigated, unfocused, change has fractured us of our self-discipline and leadership – either personally or as a group. Perhaps the biggest change now is to walk that back, but it’ll have to be done so in a targeted manner by addressing our personal assessment. What do we hope to accomplish, and how are we going to set attainable goals to make it a reality? Otherwise individually, and as a group, will be stuck in a spin cycle in perpetuity.