A New Year is a Beautiful Fresh Start

A New Year is a Beautiful Fresh Start

By Leo Babauta

At the beginning of every year, it’s like a blank slate(slāt): the year can be whatever you want it to be.

This is freeing, exhilarating(iɡˈziləˌrādiNG), magical.

Take advantage of it, my friends.

Of course, we always have the magic of a fresh start available to us — in any day, any hour, any moment. Every morning is a beautiful fresh start! In fact, right this moment, you have the opportunity of a fresh start.

We should take advantage of these opportunities to see the freshness of the moment in front of us.

I recently was talking with my Zen teacher and admitted I hadn’t been studying as much as I’d committed to doing. She advised: “Start at one.” Basically, in basic breath(breTH) meditation, where you might count your breaths, your mind will get distracted and wander. And then you can simply start at one.

Start at One — this is one of my mantras(ˈmantrə) this year.

Let’s look at how to practice with this during each day, and a couple ways you can take advantage of Starting at One as we look at this beautiful year in front of us.

Practicing a Fresh Start in Each Day

Every morning, you get to ask yourself:

What would I like to do with this incredible day?
What would make today incredible for me?
What am I feeling called to do today? What’s most important?

You can wipe the slate clean of whatever happened the day before (no matter what it was), and just start anew.

And then you get a couple hours into it, and maybe you find yourself off course. You’ve gotten distracted, or caught up in busywork.

Start again.

Take a breath, and imagine this next moment is a blank slate. What is most important right now? What would you like to do with this incredible hour in front of you?

Start again. And find gratitude that you get to start again, over and over.

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https://zenhabits.net/fresh/