Two questions for the New Year

December 30, 2022 in orange desk

My past journals reveal complex New Years’ rituals. There was some overthinking involved. I was younger then.

Now, I just ask myself two questions on New Year’s Eve:

What do I want to let go of in the New Year?
What do I want to create in the New Year?

In this last week of the year, which I call my Week of Inward Thinking, I ponder these two questions, and they suffice for my entry into a new year. I shed, and I create. Perhaps they will be useful for you as well. Here’s the beginning of my answers, in case examples might be helpful as you address the questions this weekend.

What do I want to let go of in the New Year?

I want to let go of unfinished business that keeps weighing me down. It is like that incomplete in my Milton class in graduate school–until I finished that paper, I felt I couldn’t move fully into my current classes. I want to move fully into the New Year, not carry weight and distraction from the past year.

I want to let go of people who, for some reason, feel toxic to me. I can feel myself clench up when I see their names on social media, or I feel anger or resentment toward them but don’t really care enough to resolve it. I want to let them go and let those feelings go at the same time. I don’t need to fully understand why they feel toxic to me, either. And I need to know that they are not toxic people–they just feel toxic to me for a set of complex reasons I might not understand.

I want to let go of clutter–whether emotional or physical–in the New Year. I want to create minimalist spaces where the ideas in my head have a place to expand and grow, not feel stunted or suffocated by things.

I want to let go of shame–the shame of having a cluttered space, the shame of carrying extra weight for most of my adult life, the shame of compulsive behaviors, the shame of that gap between what I want my life to be like, and what it really is like, right now.

What do I want to create in the New Year?

I want to write again, consistently and with a direction in mind. I want to honor my artistic and creative self again and give myself space and time in my office and in my schedule, and in my mind, to create again. I want to practice daily in my creative life and explore words and images in new ways.

I want to create more space for reading in the New Year.

I want to create healthier boundaries in my life.

I want to create more intentionality around finances in the New Year. I want to understand money in a new way.

I want to create more family memories in the New Year.

I want to work toward health and wellness intentionally and daily in the New Year.

While I have not finished my work on these two questions, perhaps these examples will help you consider them yourself for the New Year. I hope so. And these questions can help you daily in the New Year as well, not just for New Years’ Eve. Every day is day one and can provide an opening to ask yourself if there are things you need to leave behind and things you want to create. I hope they are helpful to you, even in their simplicity. Maybe especially in their simplicity.

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.