New Year, Better You

I see the phrase ‘new year, new you’ everywhere at this time of year. Magazine covers, websites, television, social media -wherever I look, it almost feels as though I am being told that I have to radically transform myself into someone else with the beginning of the new calendar year.

To me, this phrase, this notion of becoming a new person in the new year is so reflective of the all too prevalent notion that we are not enough, around which insecurities about our jobs, our lives, our relationships, our bodies and general worth in the world brew. 

Underlying this idea and social to pressure to start anew, there is the notion that we are somehow inherently flawed. Or at least that we have somehow become it since the last new year and time that we tried to embrace the ‘new year, new you’ idea. We are pushed to act out of feelings of being insufficient in one or multiple ways. We lack the willpower to make ‘healthy’ choices. We lack determination to set goals. We lack focus to achieve those goals. We lack energy pursue new things. We lack the intelligence or education to get the money making job we desire. We lack the agility we need to navigate today’s complicated world. We are emotionally unavailable to develop meaningful relationships.

We internalize our relative inabilities to meet societal expectations and our own visions of an ‘ideal life’ to the point that we start believing that there is something inherently wrong with us. Thus, we believe that with the new year, we must change who we are. So all too often, we put an insane amount of pressure upon ourselves to become a person we are not. Each year, we give into this idea that we must start anew, to leave behind who we failed to become the previous year. And, in this way, the years go by, resolutions made and remade. 

How do we put a stop to this vicious cycle?

Perhaps a change in perspectives - moving away from not being ‘enough’ to acknowledging who we are and what we have to build upon. Recognizing our strengths and using them to make small changes to grow each day into a slightly better person than we were yesterday. Making steps toward our goals and acting upon values we believe in. Not letting our worth be defined by external pressures, but rather by our own gratitude for the experiences that have shaped who we are today, good and not so good. And above all, knowing that we have power to change. To continue to better ourselves each day. 

Since the beginning of this new year, I have been reflecting upon my strengths, what have learned from people around me and previous experiences to guide my decisions in setting new goals and building upon previous ones.

I am excited and looking forward to continuing to reach toward my dreams and goals in 2016! What are you grateful and excited for?