The Big Turnaround
I wrote this text on New Year’s from 2019 to 2020. What changed in yourself from then to now?
May 2020 be more extraordinary than 2019.
As every year reaches its end, right around Christmas time, I keep thinking why people hug each other, jump around and dress all white for the New Year’s.
In my opinion, New Year’s should be a daily happening.
Think about it. At Christmas and New Year’s, people that never saw one another, that saw less of each other or that didn’t even care about the other go around kissing and hugging…
They party together, celebrate, wear the same color of clothing, feel really united by all the partying, and at the end of the day, or year, they don’t even pick up the phone to check how the other one’s doing.
The big turnaround is in the day to day life.
Try to organize a daily routine that takes the happiness of coexisting into account.
I got a few emails this year asking precisely about this idea of contemplating a happier life.
Like everyone, I too have my ups and downs and also catch myself forgetting to make the big turnaround.
And there’s always that same old:
I WILL CHANGE MY LIFE.
How many times do we hear about someone here or there that threw it all away and changed lives?
I heard about Yoga instructors that got tires of the peaceful life and went on to become great executives and I also heard about C-level executives that got tired of life and went on to open an inn on a beach somewhere.
Yeah. In this liquid world, everything transforms rapidly.
Zygmunt Bauman, a famous polish sociologist, defines liquid life as a society in which the conditions under which it’s members act change in a shorter time than what is necessary to consolidate the ways of acting in habits and routines.
The liquidity of life and society feed off each other and reinvigorate mutually. Liquid life, just as society itself, can’t keep its shape or stay its course for too long a time.
In short: liquid life is a precarious life, lived in conditions of constant uncertainty. The most intense and steadfast worries that haunt this sort of life are the fears of being caught taking a nap, not being able of catching up to speed what is happening, of being left behind, miss deadlines, find yourself full of now unwanted goods, missing the moment that asks for chance and being able to change tracks before there’s no turning back.
Liquid life is a succession of restarts, and that’s precisely the reason why endings are quick and painless these days — without them, we wouldn’t be able to dust ourselves off and start again. Those are the most challenging moments and the most unquieting headaches.
Between the arts of liquid-modern life and the skills necessary to practice them, get rid of the things you have priority in acquiring.
To me, besides all that, changing lives or making a big turnaround is also about establishing a daily healthy routine that we should follow so that our body responds with happiness to our emotions.
A daily routine starts in the mind. A healthy mind is a gateway to a healthy body, which is our temple.
A beautiful day starts with a smile, a thank you, a dream, and a decision: of making this day the best one of your life.
Eat right, be conscious when choosing your food. Try to know more about that food’s qualities and characteristics. Eat only enough — don’t go hungry, but don’t regret the excess. Enough is always the best measure.
Move, choose something that makes you smile, that brings you health and also joy. Practice Yoga, jog, choose a sport, meet up with friends.
Make your work your real craft. Remember: the best work is the one we choose to do. Make choices, define goals, change courses.
This is a healthy routine that reminds us that the day can end on just high a note as it began.
And since we’re at the end of a year: HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEARS.
(written by me in 2012 and still considered relevant and up-to-date)
