No, a new minute.

No.

A new second.

Business author Brian Tracy once said something to the effect of (and I paraphrase): “The most successful ¹ people in our society are those who think of the longest time horizon when using ² money, and the shortest time horizon when using time” ³.

Once again, it’s a new year and, as usual, people be acting crazy, yo. So the big numbers have changed on the calendar…yay. Big whoop. The smaller ones change every second, every hour, every day and every thirty days ⁴. And those are the ones that really count. Success is how you collect your seconds and all that.

Perhaps you’re picking up the vibe already, but I actually kind of hate special occasions — New Year’s especially; I always have. It always seemed to me to be a rejection of the other tens of thousands of days ⁵ that people right now typically live; it always felt like (and, in some times and places, has actually been) a way of getting people to suck it up and take crap the rest of their lives by giving them these “special days”.

For more on the social control function of “special” days, read Frederick Douglass’ autobiographical account of the release-valve-via-inebriation function that Christmas/New Year’s had during the time of ‘Murican chattel slavery; people were encouraged to get as drunk as possible so that they would associate freedom and time off with painful hangovers; those in bondage who didn’t drink were looked upon with great suspicion, revealing as it did an independent and enterprising spirit. A willingness to take one’s destiny into one’s own hands was not a desirable quality in “human property”.

So whenever I hear people describe a birth, wedding or graduation in superlative terms — “the happiest day of my life” — I feel a great sense of “if this corny-a$$ rite of passage is it for you, then FML to you too, sir”. Maybe it’s just an expression and I’m being childish and churlish and taking things too literally, but you don’t want a life where it takes so much preparation, pageantry and/or blood simply to make you happy. You don’t want a life where it takes that much alcohol, catering and rented clothing just to make you happy. You don’t want a life where years — the big numbers on the calendar — need to change just so you feel you can make new life changes and experiments.

Let it take a lot less to make you happy. As Tony Robbins once so wisely suggested, lower the threshold for what it takes to make you feel happy. Way, way low. Also, notice how I’m telling you to be happy while whining about other people’s opinions on their own lives. No hypocrisy to see here, folks. Move along …

Like children in an American school, I want every day to be special. I don’t want to be told when to feel special and brand new, especially not by an authority of some random religion. Greg 13 doesn’t run other aspects of my life; I don’t see why he should run this one; he’s not the Jedi f’n Council! I’ll be the judge of which days are special, thank you very much.

Anyway, so, enjoy your Wednesday! And enjoy these:

• “New Year’s Resolutions are behaviorally unsound. In order to keep doing something, we need periodic reinforcement, like recognition or reward. That is lacking with New Year’s Resolutions. Usually New Year’s Resolutions are too grandiose, like: I’m going to get myself fit this year. Or, I’m going to finish my MBA this year. Too much for most of us.
  In setting goals, you can be happy if the goal is doable — something, that is within your power to accomplish in a relatively short period of time.”
  [Stop With The Resolutions, Start With The Crack]
• “every day is New Year’s” [Practical Tips on What To Do Instead of New Year’s Resolutions | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time] is.gd/61xE0e
• Intermediate Goals, Mini-Dreams | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time – is.gd/GmB5TG