And so we begin another new year. This time 2018; and I like many of you, have several plans and ambitions with which to fill this new year. Among them, to improve my French and computer skills and as you may relate to, to get back in shape by doing frequent exercise. The latter is especially important, given that in my classroom I have a very sedentary lifestyle. These days, we all have computers attached to our bodies like appendages, which requires sitting down over long periods of time, each and every day. Yet as we all know, our bodies have not evolved to be in a static position for such drawn out periods.
However as the title suggests, whichever your «New Year Resolutions» are, you must begin them with a certain sense of urgency! For you only have this one life in which to achieve them.
It is this very thought, that gives everything in life a sense of value and urgency. If not, we would procrastinate everything into eternity. I believe that this is the same sense of urgency and motivation which has served to propel many workers, artists and the like, into achieving many goals, big and small within their lifetime.
Thanks to Epicurus and other great philosophers and educators, we have learnt to make the most of our lives in the here and now as explained in his famous «Epicurean Paradox», thus greatly advancing progress and efficiency in societies, to a certain degree by living for today and not always living for tomorrow. There is no second chance or afterlife in which to achieve your goals, take heed and start making real steps towards achieving them now.
Although «Carpe Diem» sounds very much like a cliché, it is thanks to this ephemeral, finite life we are living, which every morning when we wake up, pushes us forward towards our goals, providing us with the psychological inertia we need.
Therefore, let’s all make the most of 2018 by setting ourselves challenging, yet realistic goals to work towards; and if improving your English is one of those goals, then I look forward to seeing you in class!
