Self-respect for a New Year

It's the new year, and of course that raises questions: for example, just exactly how will this year be new?

I found myself digging through my files today, looking for notes on a writing project that's held my attention for a long time, but never enough to actually bring it to completion. Turns out the last time I looked at it seriously was nearly seven years ago. Yikes.

There was nothing new on this project last year, or the year before, or the year before that...and it would be so easy to for this year to be the same old same old: all the reasons I put this project down are alive and well.

But, here it is, January 1, and look - the year is indeed new! I have already done something different by remembering it, digging it out, thumbing through the pages. But how does this one step actually become something new rather than than just being swallowed up in the stultifying old pattern of neglect?

I'm reading an article that suggests that self-respect is the key. Self-respect as in: setting a clear intent, taking responsibility for seeing it through, standing accountable for all that comes of it. Or, in other words, doing it because it's important to me rather than letting all those reasons win the day.