We are five days into the new year. Maybe you already feel tired. Maybe you already forgot about your new year’s resolutions. Or maybe your mind is already spinning a story as to why you should give up trying to change. Who cares anyway? What difference will it make in the bigger scheme of things? And so the chattering mind goes on and on…
Why start again? Is making a living not already challenging enough?
What would make this time different than the previous times you’ve tried to build that new habit or change a destructive behaviour?
The truth is that this moment is different. It is not the same as the year before even the day before. This moment is exactly where you need to be to bring about the change you wish. You can’t change a habit in the past or the future.
You can’t start in the past or the future. You can only ever start now. In this moment – with this breath, within your body as it is now (even if you maybe feel uncomfortable in it after all the holiday treats).
Why change?
Because that is life. Life is change. If you want to live fully and play an active role in life, change is part of the process.
There is no special leader, president or guru that is going to come and do all the messy work and change the world for us. We can’t outsource our inner work. We are part of the world. Every time we chose change, we chose to start again (even if it is the hundredth time) – we chose life. We chose love and we chose to make the world a better place to live in for all beings.
Every act of kindness towards self and others matters.
Every pause before a reaction helps to bring a slower gentler presence into a society that is running too fast.
Every time you take responsibility for your emotions you indirectly support others to do the same.
Change starts small. It starts with each one of us showing up to what is within our control to change. It starts with accepting what is. It starts with committing to truth and taking accountability when you’ve made a mistake.
When you fall back, which we all inevitably do as change is a process, don’t punish yourself. Rather love yourself back into starting again. Put the necessary extra support in place and re-commit to life, to love to your community.
We start again because that is the only way to change. It is the only way the book gets written, the marathon gets run, the new career becomes a reality, the garden grows, the hungry child gets fed.
We start again because whilst we are alive – Life, God, Love, the Divine – never gives up on us. In starting again, we say yes to love, life and beauty amidst suffering.
I’m starting with you. Let’s start again every day of 2026.