Good morning! š»
This is the very first newsletter of the new year, and Iām hoping youāre rested enough to read this. This one, in my opinion, might be the most important one Iāve written so far.
For those of you who have been reading these for a while, know that I always start with briefly summing up what we talked about in the last newsletter. And if youāve paid attention, as someone pointed out last time, with every newsletter, I take a step forward and build on the earlier ones.
Today, I want to talk about why I do it. The reason I always give you a little recap is so that I can put new things in the right perspective. Itās the same reason we study history in school, (and no, itās not useless, I see you rolling your eyes history-hater), itās because you can only learn and grow if you embrace all parts of you, the past and the present.
Iāve never entirely understood the concept of āNew year, new meā. A good thing about it I think is that it helps a lot of people form new resolutions and take steps that their older self would not have, but how many days does that really last?
One of the biggest reasons I think some people arenāt able to follow through with new year resolutions with the 'New year, new me' mindset is because, without your past experiences, you have almost nothing to motivate you.
Iāve talked before about why self-talk and having a growth mindset is important. The more you say something, the more your brain believes it, making you put it into action subconsciously.
But letās say I make the resolution to read more in the coming new year because I felt like I missed out on a lot of good books and stories and thoughts and experiences. Say, I do this with the 'New year, new me' mindset. Now Iāll tell myself that this new me is a person who reads. But as I get busy with home, college, and work, which eventually I will, Iāll think itās okay to mold myself the way my environment needs me to. Right now, studying is more important than reading novels. Helping out at home is more important than sitting and reading. This really isnāt wrong, but this way of thinking wonāt let me do what I really want to do.
Thatās why, I believe more in āNew year, better meā. Instead of disregarding your past, your experiences, your mistakes, and the times that were almost too difficult to get through, embrace them.
I'll take out time to read because I know and I remember how I felt when I thought Iād missed out on too much. I'll make changes in my actions today because of what Iāve experienced in the past.
What you are today, at this moment, is a combination of everything you have been through right from your beginning.
I think, disregarding your past only to change yourself into something new is like restarting on all the progress you have done up until now.
Kurt Lewin said, āYou cannot change a system until you understand it.ā
This combination of a few words might just be what we need today. Everyone is so focused on changing themselves or discarding their āpast selfā every new year, itās like they almost forget that they could always make minor changes and still be brand new.
So, my new yearās resolution is to understand and make simple tweaks in myself. Nothing grand.
P.S. You donāt need a new year to start making a change. You don't need a fresh month or the start of the week, or even a new day.
You can start even on a random Wednesday at 4:37 pm if it means finally putting something good into action.
That's very true. The more you force a drastic change, the lesser likely are you to slip back to your old unhealthy ways. Maybe the concept of 'New year, new me' comes from the idea of setting your mind to what you want to be but even then it seems unlikely if you don't consider what has been setting you back from it in the past. Great blog again! Looking forward to more this year!
True...now is the time..š