"New year, new me."
Every year we tell ourselves this simple phrase, repeat this mantra in our heads over and over. With the dawn of the New Year before us, we begin to hope for better things, a better life. We want to better ourselves for the people we love, get rid of old guilt and start fresh. That's why we create these resolutions; like how we'll write a journal entry every day, or how we'll lose 10 pounds before Valentine's. But more often than not, these resolutions disappear, bleed out with the first sign of a challenge. Why is that?
Maybe it's because these resolutions, these promises, are not full hearted. We do not commit fully because we do not want them. We tell ourselves we do, but we are thinking so for all the wrong reasons. We cling to this hope that a "new me" will be enough for the people around us. If we're thinner, run more, write more, think more, maybe we'll seem complete. Maybe they'll like us better.
Too often we are concerned with the way we are portrayed; the way other people think of us. If they'll like our new hair cut, or our clothes. We forget that as long as we love ourselves, then peoples' opinions do not matter. We become to absorbed in the popularity of it all. Who has the best, who is the best.
It all becomes too much, too overwhelming. Life gets in the way of our resolutions. Soon the months drag on, February, March, April. Winter quickly turns into spring. The snow melts away with our broken promises. What we once thought was "new" becomes more and more familiar. We often forget about ourselves in this process, we shift the focus from what we care about to what others will think of us.
So does that mean that we should stop making these New Year's resolutions?
No.
We must simply fully commit to them. Make promises that are for ourselves, not for other people. Maybe then our goals will be easier to achieve. So this year when you're making your New Year's resolutions, remember to make it about you and no one else. Remember that the love we foster for ourselves is more important than what other people think of us.
