This year something odd happened to me. I woke up the morning after new years as the same person and … I was okay with that. I woke up still wanting to indulge in cereals and sweets I shouldn’t, wanting to sleep in past 12 on most days, and spend money on gadgets and an unnecessary amount of hats.
While not the weirdest of revelations we live in a world today that says “If it ain't broke, fix it anyway”. This ideal applies the most right before the start of the new year. Suddenly what we’ve been doing the whole year won’t work for the new one because following the same routines implies that we haven’t progressed. So we find ourselves stuck in a consistent cycle of fixing, modifying, changing, and refining the things about us that may not need much improving at all. People create new year resolutions to switch up things in their life for the new year and while seeking a better you isn’t a bad thing why can’t the you that exists now be enough?
We’re told so often to be ourselves but it’s only acceptable if done in a certain way, by the guidelines of others. This year, ask yourself why do we set standards so high that failing to drop 50 pounds in a year or walk the entire length of the Great Wall of China (got 18 months to spare?) is considered a failure. When we live in a society that’s obsessed with being something “new” what does that say about the old? If you still like to watch cartoons in the morning or eat a slice of pizza on your lunch break I applaud you! If you don’t have anything to change about yourself this year because you like who you are and want to be that same person then I applaud you again.
So eat the whole damn pizza pie and stop checking your scale. If you’re still in debt don’t beat yourself up so much; money isn’t everything. And if you like the clothes you have and how they look on you there’s no need to switch up your style. A new year doesn’t have to be about finding flaws to rid yourself of but rather about celebrating yourself no matter what habits you exude.
And if you find that you truly must work on things in your life do it for your own benefit whenever you so choose. Don’t wake up on New years and decide that from that day on you’ll be a better you because you can start working on that early on. The problem that comes from resolutions is most people are motivated and stride toward them with great speed. Eventually however the goal they once so intensely sought seems further and further away and that same speed they had starts to slow up. Soon 40 pushups a day turns into 10 and borrowing a dollar from your saving jar results in emptying the jar within a matter of weeks. Don’t fall into a short term goal trap this year and love all parts of yourself even if they’re not everyone’s cup of tea.
