Dead On Time
If you need to write down your New Year resolutions, you don't want them bad enough
Now with Christmas out of the way, we are supposed to turn our focus to the New Year.
Don’t get me wrong—I love certain aspects of the holiday season. The music is brimming with vocal harmonies, soulful vibes and nostalgia-infused lyrics. Halls and shops are decked in style. We get to hug our loved ones in cinnamon-scented rooms after a hearty meal.
What’s not to love?
Glad you asked.
We should meet up before Christmas.
Will it be ready before Christmas?
Ideally, we should aim for completion this side of Christmas.
Why the rush? Is the world going to end if certain things roll over to that dreaded, cataclysmic “other” side of Christmas?
Funnily enough, it all very quickly goes into reverse:
Let’s pick this back up in the new year.
Sorry, not now — that’s a problem for 2025.
Can this not wait until January?
Oh sorry, my bad. I thought you really wanted to get this done, and not just tick the pre-Christmas box while high-fiving yourself.
Say what? You are now busy writing down your New Year resolutions? Okay then. Let me know when you’re ready—ideally, before next December.
Working in the legal industry, you get to look at deadlines right in the eye. You learn to see beyond their outfit of arbitrary cataclysm.
Deadlines love to bark, but only few can really bite.
Technically, this is known as your bullshit detector. Your biggest ally when the going gets tough.
Spinning vinyl as my main music format whilst living a busy life has taught me many things. Above all, it has taught me to get out of my comfort zone and connect with my true desire.
In less elegant terms, to cut the crap and fight for what I really want in life.
What do you think goes through my head when I need to take a record out of its many protective sleeves and get my system ready at arse o’clock in the morning just so I can listen to some music before going to work?
There’s never a good time. I make the time.
You simply don’t go through this kind of hassle if the record isn’t worth it. You don’t push through a series of small yet irksome inconveniences if your body is not screaming with desire to spin that one record that changed your life forever.
The value I get from vinyl goes far beyond asset appreciation or an enhanced listening experience.
These records on my shelves, all of them, took time and effort.
To discover. To find. To fall in love with. To save money for.
They all had a price, and not just on a sticker. I had to sacrifice other things in order to get them.
That’s why I can call them mine.
If you let convenience, or the calendar, or some other socially accepted convention dictate your priorities, you lose touch with your true desire. You disconnect from the fire that burns your passion.
Bad enough for any human being. For a music lover, it’s simply a crime.
This is why I’ve never fully understood the herd mentality of squeezing in as much as you can during the busiest week of the year, stressing the hell out of your nervous system, and then withdrawing from absolutely everything in order to write down New Year resolutions which you know you will eventually push to the back burner until they start screaming for attention.
Maybe it’s just me, but do you really need to write down the stuff you want to achieve?
If you really want something, you don’t need an external reminder, because you will be already working on it with every fibre of your being at every single available opportunity.
If there are psychological barriers you need to break, forget the resolutions and start there. Those barriers will keep coming back to haunt you until you decide to look them in the eye.
Like deadlines, you need to see right through them if you want to conquer them.
I suppose I don’t have much by way of a New Year message, guys, other than get out of your comfort zone and fight for what you really want in life.
Seize the day. The time is now.
Happy New Year, vinyl lovers. Keep on spinning.
I have so much I could say about this, but I can't take the time because I'm busy writing the podcast that has consumed every fiber of my being for the past three years, that does not care about resolutions or Christmas or deadlines (well, okay, I actually care very much about that last one).
In short, amen to everything you said.
Whew, I tell ya! This week has indeed been, in the words of The Ohio Players, "Rollercoaster! Say WHAT?! Love Rollercoaster, chile!!"
Great piece, Andy, 'cause you didn't write about records or jackets or styli....we love all that, and that's why we're here, of course, but from someone whom we've come to know and love thru his writing about all of our loves of vinyl (and peripherals), it's great to hear advice, life lessons and affirmations from you, as well!
Don't discount that as a vital (vinyl) resource, and there's an extra content lane for you that no one else can offer! Your basic "added value" as they say in the adverts! Now, back in line for that "Love Rollercoaster, yow!" And, this time, I'll be all the way in the back with my hands up!! (Cue scream on the downside of that upcoming hill!)