Where on earth are you going?
On Wednesday, we will be exactly halfway through the year — 182 days on either side of July 2, the precise midpoint of 2025. I’ve never clocked this date before: the year’s high noon, the moment when the teeter-totter is perfectly parallel to the pavement. There’s something satisfying about having exactly as much road behind you as you have before you. Look over your shoulder. Where have you been? And where on earth are you going?
We usually make resolutions for the year on Jan. 1, in the grip of winter. The delirium of the holidays has concluded, it’s cold and likely gray outside, we are quite possibly hungover. Here’s where we traditionally set our goals for the year to come, in this depleted state. I’ve long endorsed the Always Be Resolving approach to change — you don’t need a special day in order to declare a resolution. But it does feel administratively appropriate to do it on the first day of the calendar year, when the months unfurl before us like an unpainted canvas.
This year, I propose July 2 for a sunnier moment at which to take stock of the year so far and, if it feels right, to make some achievable resolutions for the second half of the year. The sun is out. We’re in summer mode, a little less coiled up than we might have been in January. Our resolutions might be more self-compassionate, more optimistic than they were in winter. Think of it as a resolution reset. When Dec. 31 arrives, how do you want your life to be a little different? Perhaps there’s something you resolved on Jan. 1 that you’ve fallen behind on and you want to reframe it for the back half of the year. Maybe there’s something you’ve been meaning to do and six months is the perfect window in which to achieve it.
I’m skeptical of New Year’s resolutions as they’re usually executed: Here’s a way in which you’re falling short. No more horsing around, now it’s time to straighten up and fly right. The Summer Reset (if I capitalize it, it feels more official) is a different practice. These pronouncements should be summer-tinged, with an emphasis on possibility over punishment. A friend recently told me she’d resolved to ask “Does this make my life bigger?” before she made any decision. I might try this one. You might resolve to spend more time with people around whom you feel like the best version of yourself. Let the resolutions be additive, celebratory, exciting. Make them about increasing joy, about being new and radiant and more enthusiastic about the things and people you love. Happy New Half of the Year. Let’s make it the best half yet.
