“New Year, New You” is Outdated. Say This Instead To Make Your New Year’s Resolution a Reality.
Contrary to popular belief, you’re not a piece of shit for doing this.
I didn’t make any resolutions this year. Or last year. Or the year before that. My whole life, really. I never believed in them.
I didn’t figure out why until recently. Life is meant to be lived, right? If we’re continuously trying to improve ourselves, which we so should, somehow New Year’s Resolutions have a way of putting intense pressure on the ones making them.
What does that do? It gives these resolutions the power to be bigger than they need to be. The power to be bigger than they actually are. Haven’t you noticed that New Year’s Resolutions seem to somehow make you feel like complete and utter shit?
The inherent pressure is unseen at first, but contrary to our societal belief, the undertones of New Year’s Resolutions are not saying “improve,” they’re saying “change yourself” in the most toxic way possible.
“New Year, New You” has a different color to it now, doesn’t it? 91 % of New Year’s resolutions never follow through. So if you do the math, only 9% of people keep their New Year’s Resolutions. Interesting to think about.
I truly think it's because of toxic societal pressure. What happens if you miss a day of yoga? You might beat yourself up and never go back to it again. Why? Because you’re taught to think that if you aren’t perfect the first time, and have one little setback, you’re a failure.
No. That’s simply not true. Give yourself grace. The big New Year’s Resolutions are impossible to achieve instantly. Why? Because the big ones are mostly lifestyle changes. And what do you need to change your lifestyle? Time, a process, and the magic C-Word.
Consistency is always about showing up, not skipping. Live your life. Sleep that extra hour because your body needs it, and try again tomorrow. Just because you miss a day does not mean you can’t do it later or the next day. Consistency is THE KEY, and it’s a lengthy process.
Also, changing who you are in this toxic way is only going to fuck you up more than you already are. We’re all fucked up. We all have things we want to change about ourselves. The last thing you need is to neglect yourself in the process.
You need to hold your own hand, give yourself a long ass hug like the cute zebras below, and make your inner self feel seen and heard, not invalidated and cast aside. The reality is, you’re never going away so why do we as a society keep repressing ourselves?
During the last 2 years, there have been significant things I’ve wanted to accomplish. I needed to get real about them. So instead of making a resolutions list, I set a goals list.
Tiny goals which add up to big goals, and goals for my inner self. I look back at my lists at the beginning of each year and see how far I’ve come. Do I get all of them done? No. I’ve got a lot of them.
I’m a highly ambitious person, but I celebrate the goals I’ve successfully crossed off my list instead of shaming myself for the ones I didn’t.
Shaming myself would be unproductive and shitty and just make me feel more shitty which will then cause me to spiral into calling myself a piece of shit, diminishing any sense of self and my worthiness.
Your inability to accomplish every single thing does not make you a piece of shit. It indicates you are human like the rest of us. Imperfect and worthy. All we can do is try to be better than the day we were before.
If that means comforting ourselves, giving ourselves a day of rest, or pushing through, we do it by letting ourselves be ourselves. We let ourselves feel, which is the most powerful step to keep going.
So make a list of Goals this year. Take “resoultions” out of your vocabulary. Remember to be real with yourself and let 2025 be a year for living, not resolving,
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