When the New Year is just like 1999

Just Words...

There are some things you can see coming your way from next year while other events will happen totally out of the blue, the same counts for what Cyprus can expect.

It is human nature to want bigger and better for the future, it’s how we are wired, so we will presumably want more from 2020 than we could squeeze out of 2019.

In the New Year we might strive for a better job, bigger home, holiday bliss, start a new family or get divorced from the old one.

There are those who would not want anything to change after the clock strikes past midnight on December 31 because they are perfectly content with the way the game of life has played out for them.

This is an attitude to be admired and copied but as I said, most of us will be looking for self-improvement on various different levels.

I’ll hazard a guess that many of you will want to change the way you look, either going on a diet, exercising at the gym or maybe contemplating some cosmetic surgery so your Instagram pics make you seem like a million dollars.

For others, there is the spiritual side of our nature that the passing of another year inspires them to become less toxic and become more positive in their outlook.

Certainly, many a New Year’s resolution will be made and broken before we have seen the back of 2020.

New Year’s resolutions may be more dated than a 1970s Barbie Doll, but you can only respect the optimism in people who believe they can change or kick bad habits.

What is the harm in wanting to be a better person, to take a leap of faith and embrace the individual you aspire to be free from psychological hang-ups, compulsive behaviour and paranoia?

Nobody wants to be that person, green with envy, crippled by self-doubt, age anxious and lonelier than the Man in the Iron Mask.

By some stroke of genius when the New Year enters our lives in all its virgin innocence, we pretend a new dawn waits for that person we want other people to see.

But once the party is over and the fireworks have disappeared into the stratosphere 2020 is going to feel a lot like 2019, not having quite escaped into a brave new world where our worse traits are consigned to history.

Time will throw out some curveballs to put us off guard because we didn’t see it coming.

That career shift turned out to be a redundancy, the dream holiday collapsed with the airline and your ideal home is now owned by the bank.

Each unfolding month of 2020 was to open another door to a brighter future where everything slotted into place in the village of contentment.

We are eager to wave goodbye to self-doubt, peer pressure, anxiety, uncertainty, wishful thinking, expanding waistlines and contaminated relationships.

It is what we strived for on the road to self-awareness. We want to run on cleaner energy for a healthier, longer existence but instead, we are knee-deep in industrial waste.

Not every strike is going to be a winner, so let’s take small confident steps into the unknown future with more tolerance of our failings and acceptance of our limitations to achieving perfection.

On the wider stage, 2020 will make us more aware that climate change is no longer an issue confined to scientific argument but something that is happening and re-shaping our environment.

Cypriot politicians have yet to understand this but tolerating their ignorance and inactivity is no longer an option on the solar highway.

We must also become racist intolerant as the world seems to be turning back the clock to an era of prejudice and dangerous bigotry.

Cyprus has to become a more inclusive and accepting society where there is investment in helping people with disabilities and mental health issues.

These are the kinds of resolutions (pledges) the government should be making in its New Year’s message to the Cypriot people – but you know that’s not happening – not even in a parallel universe.

What was the last government or political party to fight an election on inclusion, climate crisis and mental health – or even mention it?

You know 2020 is not going to herald such an outlook, so stick to the fad diets, Botox, quitting electronic cigarettes and becoming the boss of your own company. Happy New Year like it’s 1999.