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In two days we have the beginning of another New Year.

Although different cultures may have different dates to celebrate the New Year (the most famous of which is the Chinese New Year which actually has a variable date (the next one occurring Feb 1, 2022)), the symbolism of what New Year Day represents transcends cultural borders.

New Year day marks the closing of one chapter along with the opening of another.

With each New Year comes hope for a happy and prosperous future.

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”

– Alexander Pope

Unfortunately not every one feels good fortune to kick off the New Year.

There are many individuals that are struggling and in despair, whether it be financially, emotionally, or a combination of both.

It does not matter how many Happy New Year wishes they receive as those wishes fall on deaf ears.

I should know as I experienced this first hand in 2011.

I was on month 11 of my 13 month divorce (and on New Year day 2011 it still felt like no end was in sight).

Just a couple of years later a friend of mine was going through a trying divorce of her own.

She was unhappy with how her life had turned out and shared the same feelings I had previously experienced.

I commented that we should treat the upcoming New Year as a way to wipe the slate clean and start anew.

The Romans had a term for this, the Tabula Rasa, which translates to “clean slate.”

The Tabula Rasa concept seemed to be rallying point for my friend and served as her inspiration for moving forward.

We are not prisoners of the past.

We all make mistakes and some of them can be quite big.

But for the vast majority, these mistakes can be left in the past where they belong and not darken your future path.

“The future is not set in stone, and even if it was, stone can be broken.”

-Melanie Rawn.

There is no reset button for life, but you can reset your life trajectory.

Simple maneuvers performed early can certainly have a drastic impact on your final destination.

But no matter where you are in your life journey you are allowed to make course corrections.

There is no reset button for life, but you can reset your life trajectory. Click To Tweet

Wiping the slate.

It seems like act of forgiving oneself is simple, but I assure you it is not.

I find it far easier to forgive others than it is to let myself off the hook.

Not forgiving oneself, however, is a recipe for unhappiness.

It is vital that you learn how to not only forgive yourself but to also truly mean it.

One concept that made self-forgiveness a lot more palatable was the realization that mistakes have an important place in life.

Imagine if:

• You never had anything go wrong.
• You never had your heart broken.
• You never had a bad relationship.
• You never experienced financial hardship.

 

Without these lows, can you truly appreciate the highs?

My awful marriage makes me appreciate my current relationship with my fiance even more.

If I didn’t wipe the slate clean with my previous bad relationship memories and instead chose to keep my heart closed off, I may have never been in a position to accept the love I have now.

In a similar vein, financial mistakes may seem incredibly daunting to overcome.

We can beat ourselves over the head again and again about the wrong financial choices we made in our life.

But that does not serve any purpose other than to bring us down.

Forgive yourself of those mistakes, learn from them, and forge ahead.

Resolutions for the New Year.

We all have made resolutions on January 1st, when we are have the highest level of hope and enthusiasm for a better life.

Yet typically these resolutions get broken fairly early in the year as we find ourselves falling back into our old habits.

Why does this predictable cycle occur year after year after year?

I find the majority of the time an individual fails with his or her resolutions because of a few things:

• Resolutions made are kept private and thus lessens accountability.
• What you desire to achieve from these resolutions is often not an instant gratification endeavor.
  • Weight loss and the desire to become physically fit make up the majority of most resolutions that quickly get broken.
    • People sign up for gym memberships but attendance and motivation wane soon after.
    • Achieving weight loss goals often is a long term play and without early results an individual can get discouraged and give up.

 

Much like it is important when you start your financial journey to formulate and write down an Investment Policy Statement, I find it is crucial to formalize your resolutions by writing them down on this Tabula Rasa you have just been given.

Share it with your inner circle and inquire about their resolutions as well.

Hold each other accountable so that you have outside support when your inner will falters.

Similar to Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball concept, find ways to get a positive feedback loop going for your resolution by breaking it down into smaller segments and celebrating each milestone as you cross it rather than taking an all or none mentality (which too often we go the “none” option.)

This “Resolution Snowball” might be just the trick to keep you on your desired path.

Just remember:

Your final chapters are not yet written so go ahead and change the narrative from a tale of tragedy to a tale of triumph.

Here’s wishing you the best for a prosperous upcoming year.

 

Note:

If you are in search of financial help, please consider enlisting the service of any of the sponsors of this blog who I feel are part of the “good guys and gals of finance.”

Even a steadfast DIY’er can sometimes gain benefit from the occasional professional input.

 

 

-Xrayvsn