You Don’t Need A New Year to Become A New You

This "New Year, New You" mentality can be framed in such a way that makes it seem motivating, uplifting and encouraging. There's nothing inherently bad about setting a New Year's resolution, but it depends on where it's coming from. You see,  things can get problematic when you're doing it from a place of pressure or obligation. When you feel like you have to come up with New Year's resolutions to hop on the bandwagon like everyone else. The stress and disappointment we sometimes place ourselves can be counterproductive, creating unnecessary stress and possibly making things worse. Instead, remember that you can start anytime you want. You don't need an obligatory day to tell you when you need to start your journey. And keep the focus on yourself. Nothing will be gained by comparing yourself to anyone else because they are not you and you are not them. If you choose to compare at all, compare yourself to yourself in a temporal fashion with no hard-set goals in mind. The journey towards an elusive goal is every bit as important as the destination. Therefore, don't allow yourself to be  driven by achieving a certain goal, rather decide to be driven first and foremost by the kind of life you want to live: your lifestyle.  See if you can be a bit gentler with yourself or give yourself this same kind of grace that you might give to someone that you really love or care about who's in a similarly challenging situation. And, if you insist on resolving to do something, do this: go easy on yourself, be your own benchmark for success. And think about the kind of lifestyle you want to live. Happy New Year.