New year, same me?
Entering into the new year can bring about some cliche questions or quotes you see floating around. “New year, new me!” “What are your new year's resolutions?” “I’ll start eating healthy in the new year”. While these statements can seem harmless at face value, they can bring about expectations and negativity.
Naturally, we tend to become more reflective at the end of each year, looking back on things we had achieved, and what we went through or experienced. It makes sense that the new year is the time to set goals or intentions for the year to come. This action in itself isn’t a terrible thing to do, the thing to consider is whether we are setting realistic goals or if we are setting ourselves up for failure by expecting coming January 1st some magical dust will settle and we become a new person.
The reality of change is that it requires consistency and often is something that occurs over time. If you want to make changes in your life, go for it! I believe in the sentiment that each year is an opportunity to improve parts of yourself you’d like to work on, it’s less overwhelming and allows you to achieve goals or intentions at your own pace.
The running joke that new year’s resolutions are made to be broken, doesn’t have to run true if you set ones that are meaningful for you. Rather than give in to the pressure of making up goals for the sake of it e.g "Being healthier, working out more, drinking more water” set intentions for things that are realistic for you to implement and align with you.
My sentiment is that you don’t need to become a whole new person each year if you don’t want to be, however setting intentions for things you’d like to focus on can be a great start to figuring out your life goals. Change starts with baby steps, what small things would you like to work on this year?
If you’re wanting some help with setting some life goals and are ready to explore who you are and why you do what you do, you can reach out for a therapy appointment. Contact us at treatyourpsyche@gmail.com to enquire.
