New Year New You

New Year, New You

Conventionally, New Year is associated with celebration and reinvention. The traditions are said to have derived from the time of the Romans, who begun each year by making promises to the God Janus, whom the month of January was named after. The times have progressed to facilitate what we now associate with a great celebrational farewell to leave the last year behind and start fresh the following day; with a New Year and a New You.

Once each January 1^st rings in, all those mistakes, all the hard feelings and all that you’d rather forget seems suddenly manageable; the past is left behind and with it are its memories. The beginning of the year is like embarking on a voyage of new ventures to improve our lives.

New Year’s Resolutions, to me, are the act of setting your-self an unachievable goal at the last minute, which really, you know you’re going to fail at. The most popular of resolves are in and around the directions of losing weight, drinking less, stopping smoking, exercising more, saving money and anything, it seems, which restricts us from being the person which we’ve inevitably, and possibly, self-disappointingly become.

Why with this infinite opportunity to better ourselves do we predominantly decide to set resolutions which inhibit who we are? As soon as Christmas Day arrives, the Boxing Day binge is thrust at us from all directions right the way through January and all we hear is how it’s time to lose weight, drink less, exercise more and look better.

This narcissistic approach to self feng-shui destines us all to inner-doom. By grasping on to a constraint on our own personality traits because it is what society expects you to do, and suggests it is the time for, is just not practical. Setting goals that you don’t really care about, just because you think that you should is never going to result in long term success or satisfaction.

You have to look at the reason behind why you want to change something about yourself, rather than the goal itself. If you want to feel better about the way that you look, what exactly is it that is making you feel bad in the first place? If you want to save money, what is it that you’re saving for? Going in to the New Year, with a strong sense of who you are and for what exact reason you want to make a change is the only way you’re going to stick to it throughout the year and for the rest of your life!

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that every single resolution I have set myself previously has been in vain because I can’t tame myself. Yes, I might have the occasional glass too many of wine, yes, after the extra glass I might enjoy an occasional cigarette, then a pizza… and chips, and then another glass of wine, and spend the next day rugged up under a duvet. And yes, I know it’s not good for my health, but it sure is for my happiness!

These now not so secret guilty pleasures are all things I have declared war against come the New Year’s of 2013, 2012 and really, dating all the way back to the noughties… I clearly am not successful in attempting to curb these bad habits of mine, which I have come to believe to be a genetic malfunction, because honestly I don’t want to!

This year is going to be different, I am going to make progressive and positive affirmations that will enrich my life, not corset it. I think it’s better to delve a little deeper than surface matters to obtain optimum objectives for the approaching New Year and thus, New You!

My resolution this year is going to be to make time. See old friends more, visit my family, stop longer for strangers, Skype the abroad folk and dedicate at least a day a month to charitable work. I want to look outwards at how I can affect others because it is easy to forget that helping people helps you too. Happiness is contagious… they do say there is no such thing as a selfless good deed.

Whatever you decide to do to reinvent yourself this New Year, make sure you are really doing it for you; and that you can validate the reasons why with the final result in mind. Keeping a photo or an article in the mirror of what you desire is a failsafe way in which to keep strong daily about why you started your resolution in the first place.

Reinventing yourself shouldn’t be about restrictions, rather broadening your horizons. So, before the clock strikes midnight, have a think about the things you want to leave behind this past year and why that is. You are about to embark on the journey of your making, so turn a few different directions, make a lot of unique pit-stops and select your passengers wisely . This is the New Year and the New You is entirely of your making!