“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."
-from 'Little Gidding' by T. S. Eliot

Whether it’s 1st January or the beginning of a new school year or maybe just the start of a new week: there’s something incredibly motivating about making a new start or fresh beginning. You can feel excited by the prospect of making a change, committing to new behaviours and perhaps leaving things behind. So much about fresh starts is about forming new habits and old habits are easy to fall back on.

Firstly, it’s important to be clear on why you’re making a fresh start in the first place. Sometimes our determination to change can feel a little bit like a gut reaction and we can decide very quickly to’ do things differently’ from Monday. We can promise ourselves we won’t get a detention again, that we’ll get our homework in on time next week or listen more carefully when our friends are talking to us, but the past is comforting, and old habits die hard. It's important to regularly recommit to that change and to remind ourselves why we are making it in the first place as well as making sure that we're making that change for the right reasons.

Secondly, fresh starts and change both take discipline. Doing something differently is often hard work as we learnt to re-shape the way we are behaving. So it’s important to keep moving forwards and to be prepared for the hard work that comes with learning new habits. Be prepared and plan for success. If we are committing to being more organised, keeping an up-to-date diary will help.

And finally, progress isn’t linear. In making a fresh start there will be setbacks. There will be days when things don’t go our way and we end up taking backward steps. It’s important to forgive ourselves in those moments but also to reflect honestly and learn from our mistakes.

As long as we are moving forwards, we’re moving in the right direction.