A Fresh Start—Finding a Spark in the Everyday
Life can be inconsistent. Why do you sometimes feel like you’re buried in baggage and history, and sometimes you can move forward unfettered? The difference can be how interesting your work or life activities are. You may be involved in what you perceive to be cumbersome pursuits, while at other times your life can be interesting and exciting. Sometimes the difference is purely psychological. During the times you feel weighted down, you may feel there is no escape from the narrow tunnel you’re in. You may feel there are forces in play that keep your life in constant drudgery, and you aren’t able to defeat them. At other times, even when engaged in the same activities or tasks, you feel energized and invigorated. The work seems light and even fun. If you could figure out the difference between these two scenarios, would it be possible to always keep it fresh?
How milestones can provide energy and meaning
A significant factor in your level of interest and energy may be where you are in relation to an important milestone in your life. Milestones can provide a sense of accomplishment and progress, which can help you feel motivated and energized. Achieving important milestones, whether personal or professional, can boost confidence and self-esteem. They can also provide a sense of purpose and direction which can help you stay motivated and focused, and give you the energy you need to make progress in all areas of your life. “Celebrating life’s little victories” can seem cliche, but it is important. Being aware of what you achieve on a day-to-day basis can be just as important as the big, life-changing milestones. Recognizing and celebrating them can give you a sense of purpose leading up to them, and a sense of accomplishment after you achieve them.
The Fresh Start Effect
If you don’t acknowledge or recognize your milestones, it may seem like you’re working on the same tasks without any breaks or fruition. There is likely a feeling of drudgery or malaise that comes with this situation. Without “temporal landmarks” you never experience what psychologists call the “fresh start effect” or a restart in time. People are more likely to pursue new goals and make positive changes in their lives when they experience this effect. The fresh start effect is common when the restart is obvious, such as the beginning of a year, the accomplishment of a goal at work, or the completion of a phase in your life, such as a job change. But incorporating this feeling more consistently in your life can be challenging but it is possible.
You can create the fresh start effect by emphasizing your day-to-day achievements and victories as mentioned above, but you can also spark this effect in other ways too. One way that I use to gain a fresh start is by incorporating a variety of perspectives. For example, my diet and exercise regime can get stale from time to time and I struggle to see the benefit of my effort. During these times, I look for a new book about diet or exercise or try a new training app to help me with my bicycling or calisthenics. This doesn’t really tell me anything I don’t know, but the new perspective and the tweak to my approach give me new energy and enhanced motivation.
New beginnings
Even when life seems unchanging in a never-ending stream of sameness, new beginnings are happening all the time. You just have to be aware of them and acknowledge them. There are obvious ones like those mentioned above. But other new beginnings have the potential to change your energy and your outlook. When there is a change in season, for example, it always fills me with a sense of excitement and wonder. Everything feels new and fresh. Anything that helps us keep track of time clicking by can seem like a new beginning too. The start of a new week is an opportunity to come at your life in a new and different way. Each new day, for that matter, is a chance to reset. But we can take it still further.
Every second that ticks by is an opportunity for change—a chance to make a fresh start. It may seem that you don’t have much flexibility in what you do or how you do it, but a fresh perspective can help you to see your life in a new light. Step away, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and look at what you’re doing as if you’re looking at it for the first time.
Every moment in your life can be a new beginning. Your life will only get stale if you let it.
