By Imlisanen Jamir
The turn of the year often feels like a crowded marketplace, filled with hawkers peddling advice and promises of reinvention. Everywhere you look, someone has a better way to start over, a brighter path to becoming “new and improved.” But what if we could step back and see the truth in something simpler? What if the real beginning isn’t a grand resolution but the quiet resolve to simply keep moving?
As CS Lewis put it: “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
In a world that demands constant reinvention, the hardest thing to do is to remain rooted in the present—here, where life unfolds in its unpredictable, messy glory. Self-improvement culture, with its endless checklists and metrics, can feel less like a helping hand and more like a relentless taskmaster. And yet, our best moments rarely come from chasing perfection. They come from living authentically, even when it’s imperfect and unscripted.
Consider Leonard Cohen’s words: “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” It’s a reminder that striving for flawlessness is futile; what makes us human is what makes us beautiful.
As the calendar flips, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the noise—be it from our own doubts or the world’s endless challenges. Climate change, political turbulence, inequality—all valid reasons to feel weighed down. But despair solves nothing. Small acts of hope, like planting seeds in rocky soil, are what keep us alive.
Of course, there will be failures. There will be moments when we stumble. But, as Maya Angelou once wrote, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Progress is not about grand gestures; it’s about the small, deliberate steps we take every day.
So, as we stand on the threshold of another year, let’s not obsess over the next big thing or some unattainable ideal. Instead, let’s honour the small victories—the quiet moments of clarity, the connections we nurture, the dreams we dare to whisper into existence.
The days ahead will come with their share of trials. But they’ll also come with opportunities to begin again, not just on January 1st but every single day. And that, perhaps, is the most liberating truth of all: beginnings are everywhere, waiting for us to notice.
Comments can be sent to imlisanenjamir@gmail.com
