It is bizarre that we think that a new year changes anything. At the same time it is wholly appropriate that we do.
I have not contradicted myself in making those two statements. I have instead highlighted a critical issue in decision making.
A long time ago someone suggested to me that in any situation we have only three choices.
First we can accept the situation we are faced with. That is, of course, what we do the vast majority of the time. Life is too short to do anything else.
Second, we can walk away from the situation: for example, we can resign our job or leave a marriage.
Third, I was told, we can try to change things.
I recall not accepting this logic when presented with it, logical as the argument is. I suggested there was always a fourth option, which is to reframe the situation: that is, we look at it in a different way and start the process of appraisal afresh.
And this last is what we do at New Year. We stand back and reappraise what we want in the belief that things can not just be changed, but be wholly reassessed. That may not be logical but we humans do it all the time. And it clearly can work. When it does we can resolve the paradoxes that face us.
That's the challenge of New Year.
Happy 2018.
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Buy me a coffee!
I’ll drink to that.
And that is precisely what I now intend to do. I’m off to the pub.
Best wishes for a 2018 that is better, or if you’ve had a good 2017….even better. 🙂
And I will second that, Andy! I am now in the pub, and 2018 is beckoning. I have a feeling that next year will prove to be momentous, and think Richard will have much to comment upon. All the Best for 2018.
I think a ‘New Year’ carries a lot of useful symbolism for hope. As it’s usually pretty gloomy outside in our corner of Northern Europe we now look forward to the spring. The initial 3 months of the year are therefore ideal for dreaming and planning, prior to the symbolic rebirth at Easter.
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” (Alan Watts).
As midnight approaches, and on that more optimistic note from an habitual pessimist, I wish you, your family and all your progressive readers, a very happy, peaceful and above all healthy 2018.
Well, happy passage through an arbitrary point in the space/time continuum.
Part of that process is drawing a line under the old year, assessing it and bringing it to an end, as taught to us by accountants, but also deep in our pre-Christian and Christian traditions for the time of the winter solstice. Drawing that line brings the previous period to a close and frees us up to start again. Politically, it is a great relief to get to the end of that miserable last term.
I keep a journal, a new book for each year. Today, having finished off the end report for last year, I will use the prestige first page of the new book to write a summary of how the people and matters I think are important to me are at this time. I then look back at last year’s first pages, and see what has changed. The reckoning for the year, balance sheet and P and L for 2017.
Then it all starts again, but with a sense of renewal, new purpose, new resolve.
Happy New Year, Richard, and thank you for your blog, which is much appreciated.
Jim
You really do reappraise
Thanks for the comment
Richard
What a great way to look at the New Year. To reappraise situations and reframe what we want from them. I’ll keep that in mind. Happy New Year, Mr Murphy …and thank you for all the work you do to make us see sense. Much appreciated.
Good Morning and Happy New Year.
Re-framing eh?
Again!
I suppose we will have to keep doing this until people get it. It’s reminds me of fly-fishing – aiming the fly at different parts of the river until you get a bite.
I’d better get my waders out – philosophical and otherwise.
🙂
Accounts for TRUK late again? Tut tut.
They are most certainly with Companies House
They have never been late
Richard,
May I wish you a Happy New Year; and all the very best for 2018 – and felicitations to your readers, and to the contributors to your comment section.
Thank you for your good content and site
Full moon tonight, Jan 1st. Full moon at start of the year. Is this not auspicious? Does this not augur well for 2018. OK, that’s belief in astrology, not science. But even so, the rational person should still see in a blind and indifferent universe signs of hope.
As I didn’t get in quick enough at the time enough at the time I would now like to have a go at the ‘2018 Quiz’ from the previous post if that’s OK.
1 “Will Trump push the big red button in 2018? And will the military obey him if he does?”
He won’t because his biggest fans are in Russia.
2 “Will the Tories finally lose their credibility?”
They already have (look at Boris, I mean. really..).
3 “Will the Tories survive as a party?”
Yes, in permanent coalition. The voter age demographics alone are slowly killing them. They would survive the year intact but not the long term.
4 “Will Labour offer a meaningful Brexit strategy?”
When they eventually have to and probably not beforehand.
6 “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn?”
Oh yeah.
7 “Is this the year people will realise there is a Magic Money Tree, after all?”
It may be the year that they stop caring . Stupid little memes like “Magic Money Tree” have a much shorter life span these days.
13 “If it becomes clear that Brexit is for one day, if at all, and certainly not for 2019, where will people turn politically?”
Is it not yet clear?
14 “Will Farage return?”
Yes, as an amphibian. Having been accidentally kissed by a near-sighted princess he will turn into the frog that he has always closely resembled.
19 Will the English far right turn to guerrilla tactics in the face of soft Brexit?
Gorilla tactics, actually. They’ve been doing that all along.
20 “A wedding and? There’s got to be more than Markle, so what other events will shape the year and distract the media?”
Ask Trump. Every stupidly trivial thing he does is a ploy to divert attention from something more seriously sinister.
21 “Will we finally get public country-by-country reporting?”
The momentum is there. It will happen eventually
23 Will Uber declare bankruptcy in the face of its VAT bills now owing?
Hopefully. If they do so we’ll be sure to say that we saw it here first.
25 “Will the accountancy institutes finally realise that accounts are for more than shareholders?”
No, they will pretend to.
26 “When will stock markets crash”?
When interest rates rise or someone really big unexpectedly goes bust. Or both. Interesting parallels with 1987 are emerging.
27 “Will corporate America pass on their tax savings as pay rises? And to whom?”
No they will probably do something really stupid with share buybacks and trigger a crash (through rapid overvaluation, shock and sudden correction). If that happens – you saw it here first.
Thanks…
A very happy New Year to you Richard!
Sorry I’ve not been terribly active commenting on the blog these past 12 months… so busy with (interesting!) projects at the moment.
Let’s try to meet up soon.
best
Howard
Howard
Mail me
Would be good to meet
Richard
Very best wishes for a happy and successful year, and gratitude for the work you do and the insights you share – has been the great discovery of 2017 for me.
Thanks Ian
Indeed, and keep to that which is eternal: equality.
Love
John
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