I reckon the end of a year acts as a reminder of your own mortality and failure. You realise you're going to turn a year older, you mightn't have achieved everything you wanted, you might've gone through a tough time.
I understand why people feel sad or even depressed once December approaches, but it's just a matter of looking back at all the awesome stuff and not getting lost in the old "shoulda woulda coulda".
There is so much pressure on all of us to do all kinds of things. Have a career, start a family, be creative, be beautiful, adventurous, be social, make more time for yourself, only do stuff that makes you happy, be responsible, be a good partner, child, sibling, save up, live life to the fullest.
Don't stress about that stuff. You see, a lot of these things are completely contradictory and impossible to achieve, at least not constantly. Most of us find it hard to incorporate 30 min of exercise in our daily lives, how should you manage to fit all the above in?
At the end of the day, 2012 isn't your last year and there are hopefully many more to come. And it's not like you will go to sleep in 2012 and wake up in 2013 and something grandiose or totally horrific has happened overnight.
So my advice, which also acts as a note to myself: Take it easy on yourself, make yourself happy, don't set yourself deadlines for life's milestones, toss your to-do lists. Just live!
And to support the point I am making here, here is a shit ton of Studio Ghibli awesomeness!
