COLUMN: New Year means a new start and a chance to...stay the same?

This week we find ourselves standing in the gap of the New Year. Rather like a lively herd of cattle eager to break into that field of fresh grass, we enter January 2025 full of hope, guilt, and an avalanche of “New Year, New Me” slogans.

Gyms are packed, storage tubs sell out, and social media is buzzing with plans to transform every last inch of life into something shinier and more Instagrammable.

But before you rush out to buy a juicer and a life planner, let me suggest something radical: what if the old you isn’t so bad? The obsession with New Year’s resolutions and resets frustrates many of us. The pressure is on to fix ourselves in isolation, as though change is a singular 6 to 8 week event. But life doesn’t work like that.

Farming has taught me that change isn’t about scrapping everything and starting fresh. It’s about refining what’s already there. A pre-loved goal where a clear path lies. You don’t sow a field of grass and expect lush pastures overnight.

You plan for it, work with it, and trust the actions you take will provide the desired outcome. Ironically, New Year’s resolutions started with farmers, not fitness and lifestyle influencers.

Around 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians marked their new year with Akitu, a 12-day festival at the start of the planting season.

They used this time to return borrowed tools, repay debts, and make promises to their gods to ensure a fruitful harvest. Their resolutions weren’t about achieving six-pack abs or decluttering their homes; they were about repairing relationships, fulfilling obligations, and preparing for the year ahead.

I find these parallels pleasing. Though ancient farmers prayed and wished, they also took action and prepared, ensuring a bountiful outcome.

Just like a farm today, nothing happens by chance. Everything is by design, from the breeding cycle to grazing plans. We measure, review, and adapt.

Decisions aren’t based on wishful thinking but on data, observations, actions and a healthy dose of realism. When something goes wrong (and it will) you don’t chuck it all and start over.

You tweak. You learn. You keep going. I’ve come to see farming as the ultimate metaphor for life. Growth takes time. Change requires effort. And some outcomes are shaped by forces completely out of our control, whether its policy, weather or markets.

We adapt and push through it. Why should personal growth be any different?

Yet, society loves the idea of an overnight transformation. Lose ten pounds by March! Declutter your home and your soul! Be a better parent, spouse, or employee, all by February. It’s bloody exhausting.

As we enter 2025, I’m setting aside the unrealistic expectations that often come with this time of year. Instead of resolutions, I’m focusing on reminders. Reminders that imperfectly done is still momentum.

To value progress and life’s small wins. To plan with intention but leave room for life’s unpredictability. We don’t need to become someone new every January. What we need is the courage to keep going.

Farmers know this better than most. You plant seeds, care for them, and trust that growth will come, sometimes in ways you didn’t expect. So, before you write out a long list of resolutions, ask yourself: what’s already working? What can you build on?

The New Year isn’t a competition or a test. My one takeaway from 2024 was to enjoy the process of learning, I can be impetuous and when I take on a project, I feel the need to tick the boxes as quickly as possible. I have learned that change is a process.

Growth takes time. And none of us can do it alone. So, what seeds will you plant this year?

Whatever they are, give them time. And don’t forget to enjoy those little wins, like successfully blocking the gap!

Katie Gleeson is an online content creator who documents family life on a dairy farm in rural Tipperary via her Instagram account @katieinthecountry.