Like a horse, forever and always

When 2014 first began, my best mate and I were pretty excited about the fact that it was the Year of the Horse. See, the Horse is our Zodiac sign. 2014 was therefore our year. Our year to shine; our year to conquer like a boss. Or, "like a horse!" as the 2 of us prefer to say.

So has 2014 really been my year? Depends  on how you look at it I reckon. On one hand, I achieved some pretty big personal milestones. I scored my first full time job. Took on the challenge of working in a new and dynamic department. This one isn't really a milestone in the sense of a personal achievement, but still worth mentioning: I fell in love again. On the other hand, each of the aforementioned  milestones came with their own set of difficult challenges. My first full time job exposed how I was not as prepared as I thought I was for the working world. Being in a dynamic work environment made it even more challenging to adapt fast and keep up. As for love, well, it was tumultuous to say the least. 

So I can't really say that 2014 was my year to shone and that I owned it. Especially since some of the challenges got so overwhelming that I nearly fell into depression several times. But that's OK. 2014 was still meaningful and memorable, in this sense:

I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that—I don't mind people being happy—but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It's a really odd thing that we're now seeing people saying "write down three things that made you happy today before you go to sleep" and "cheer up" and "happiness is our birthright" and so on. We're kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position. It's rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don't teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say, "Quick! Move on! Cheer up!" I'd like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word "happiness" and to replace it with the word "wholeness." Ask yourself, "Is this contributing to my wholeness?" and if you're having a bad day, it is.

—Hugh MacKay, author of The Good Life

It is such a relief to read this and know that despite almost hitting rock bottom in 2014, the year can be considered a very wholesone one. In fact, I feel that I have grown up so much and so fast this year.

The Year of Horse may be about to give way to the Year of the Goat in a few minues' time, but I am going to keep up the upbeat "like a horse!" mentality. It served me well this years and got me through so many challenges. I'm definitely gonna need it again to take on 2015, and beyond.

Happy New Year everyone!