Here is something I don’t get. Why are people so obsessed with making New Year resolutions?
It’s like December is a ticking time bomb, reminding everyone of all their failures and shortcomings (real and imagined), and the only way people can deal with it is by promising to become a whole new person.
2021 sucked. Everyone hated it. In the history of humanity, no other year takes the cake for being “The worst year ever” in almost everyone’s list of worst years. I can understand everyone’s desperate need to pretend like it didn’t happen. But getting a drastic haircut, burning photos, and becoming a gym rat doesn’t make the hurt go away, as anyone who’s gone through a rough break-up will tell you.
So I’ve come up with a better solution. Instead of changing who we are, I want us to be more sure of ourselves.
I’m almost 30. If I’ve made it this far despite a slightly higher-than-average IQ, clinical depression, an autoimmune illness, and a global pandemic, I must be doing something right, right? For just one year, I want all of us to forget about the whole ‘new year, new me’ bullshit. Here are all the things I want you to not change about yourself.
Don’t learn a new skill
During the pandemic, we were so desperate to occupy all our thoughts and time that we learnt wayyyy too many new things.
Those who had never once brewed tea in their life started flambéing creme brulee and the ones who had never stitched on a button were creating elaborate embroidery. And while I too am guilty of picking up a skill or two during the last year, I wish to go into 2022 without the pressure of learning new things. Just for now, I wish to give my all to what I know and love best: writing and making art. Everything else is a distraction. It is a form of self-sabotage to start something new with no intention to finish.
So, stop googling ‘how to make resin jewellery’ or ‘candle-making for beginners’. Focus on what you know and do it better.
(Continue Reading Below…)
- 4 Ways Women Can Successfully Follow Through On New Year Resolutions
- Self-care for the soul: How to love yourself as much as you love your job
- 6 Careers That Allow You To Work Anywhere In The World
- Is It Okay To Quit Your Job To Take Care Of Yourself?
Don’t upgrade to a brand new wardrobe
It’s the end of 2021 and we are in the middle of a climate crisis; I hope it goes without saying that overconsumption is not really the best idea.
I understand the appeal of building your ideal wardrobe with the clothes you find trendy or cool. Or you might be in the middle of discovering/rediscovering yourself and using clothing as a tool to reaffirm your identity. Or you may just like to shop. But this year, try to show more love to the pieces in your wardrobe that you already love. You bought the pieces you have with a certain intention. Try to commit to that before you toss another garment into a landfill.
Don’t try to change your body
This is the only one we get; the pandemic reminded us of that. And no matter the image that ads and magazines try to sell you, each and every body comes with its own burdens and its joys. There’s no point hating it or looking for faults in it. You can’t take care of something you hate.
In 2022, don’t punish yourself for the body you have. For so long you have treated it like something to be fixed, that you actually started to believe that it was broken. But it isn’t. It’s doing the best it can, given the circumstances. Embrace it like an old friend that knows all your secrets, a friend with some flaws of their own, but one that always comes through for you.
Don’t be more productive
Every day you wake up, your first thought is: “What all do I need to do today?” and that urgency, that desperate need to be productive consumes your entire day. Let me just say this once and for all: you are doing enough.
Being productive is a choice you make every day, not a prerequisite to your worth as a person. You are more than the work you do. You don’t need to constantly up your output to feel validated. This coming year, don’t go the extra mile.
Don’t let cynicism cloud your earnestness
Remember what it felt like to be excited about something and actually be able to show it? When you did not have to have your guard up all the time for the fear of being seen as too naive or ‘basic’? When you didn’t have to hide your love for a reality TV show or for Miley Cyrus from 2010. I want to feel like that again.
I want to say something and mean it instead of playing the game of ‘Who can seem less vulnerable’. I want us all to embrace our earnestness. The part of us that wants to believe in people and isn’t afraid of getting something wrong and learning from it.
Don’t dismiss all that you have accomplished till now
Every year we set goals for ourselves. Be more, do more, have more. And there is nothing inherently wrong with it. But I’m so tired of always chasing an arbitrary measure of success that the world has set for us. I don’t want to do it anymore.
I’m ready to face 2022 just the way I am, and so are you.
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