That right there is my 2016 calendar in front of my laptop’s desktop, I have a bit of a thing for Doctor Who. There is something about a fresh calendar taking it’s place on your wall, and I like that I get one every year from my parents. There is something comforting about having the faces of the Doctor keeping track of time for you, a poetic beauty of having a Time Lord show you what day it is.

The beauty of a new calendar is that it holds so much potential within it. We have no idea what will happen as we flip from one month to the next, all we can count on is what day our birthday is on, when holidays will occur, and what order the months will slip past us.

As 2015 has come to an end and 2016 begins, there is a fair chance that you have heard someone declare that it will be a New Year New Me kind of situation, and maybe you have scoffed at that but I think it is okay to think like that. I don’t necessarily fall into that line of thinking, but I do think it is an alright one to take on, if you’re serious about it of course.

You see, time is an abstract concept, it is something that we as humans have come up with to help us with planning and understanding of our world and it’s seasons. We are the ones that had to define seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, nothing else really cares what you call it, they just live it. Animals know when seasons are changing and they know what they have to do. We have circadian rhythms to tell us when we should be awake and when we should be sleeping, yet some of us still use our idea of time to buck that rhythm inside us and decide when we work.

Over the centuries we have decided how we would lay time out in front of us. We know how to make plans. We know the average life span. We are told how long we have to live when when we come down with an illness. We know that time is limited when we reach a certain age. This is where the abstract concept of time really comes into play, because we know what the words mean, but we can never guarantee that we will have any of it. We hold onto an understanding of a definition and we think outward from that, but does it really make that much of a difference in the long run?

It is a new year right now, because we say that enough days have past while we orbited the sun. We understand what that means on paper, and we celebrate and move into a new number being written when we have to put the date on something.

Some of us will decide that this is a jumping off point, that the new year will be a new them, and this is great if that is what they want to do. At the same time, any day can be a new jumping off point, your birthday works just as well as New Year’s Day, and probably will feel the same. I know I feel the same on New Year’s Day as I do the day after my birthday, something has changed, but nothing really has.

Just as our concept of time is something we understand mentally, so is our decision to make adjustments in our lives. That’s what it will always come down to, what we think about the situation, and how we want to act from those thoughts.

If you want to be a new you in the new year, then go for it.

If you want to be the exact same person you were a day or a year ago, then go for it.

If you want to make a drastic change in your life on October 11th, then I say do your damnedest.

I tell myself I am going to do certain things by certain dates, and the dates come, go, and I have not done everything I told myself I would. I think this is because there is an understanding that time goes on, and these things I am trying to convince myself to do, are not things that have any adverse effect on anything in my life if I don’t follow through. It is in those actions of mine that time isn’t necessarily on my side, or it is just something that continues to pass as I live from one moment to the next.

I do not get great enjoyment from letting time pass without me doing things I think I should. I do not arbitrarily decide to be lazy about various tasks, but perhaps there is that understanding that more time will exist.

There are people that say one should live every day like it is your last, and I get the reasoning behind that, how it can make you appreciate what you’re doing and possibly force you to do more than you are. I don’t see this as a bad train of thought, but for some reason I have never been able to run my life in that way, but I don’t feel bad about that either.

I think all of us live at a pace that feels right to us. We speed up when we need to, we slow down when we need to, and sometimes we go with the flow. We get shit done when it needs to be, and we deal with the consequences when we don’t follow through like we should.

Our bodies know about time, but our minds have defined it.

Use the time as you best see fit.

If you don’t want to change what you’re doing, then don’t, but if you do, then you really should.

You should take breaks when you need to take breaks, bust your ass when shit needs to get done.

Better yourself in anyway you see fit, or stay the exact same as you are, only you can decide what is right for you as time moves forward.

Me?

I will not be a new Matt.

No, the Matt I am is pretty damn good.

The Matt I am has learned a lot in the almost 37 years he has been on this planet of ours, and he knows he has done some good growing over the years.

I know things I want to work harder on, changes I need to make, and that is what I will do with my time.

There are 366 days this year, there are 365 the year after that, some of those days I will waste, and some of them I will fill to the brim.

Life has a feel to it that transcends time, so let life tell you more than you let any clock.

If time is feeling like it is dragging on, then try to find something within it to enjoy.

If time is flying by you at mach speed, then take a step back and look at it in case you miss something.

Time is a crazy thing, but it sure as hell can be on your side.

Happy New Year everybody, I hope that 2016 brings you joy, love, and progress, no matter how long it takes!