New Year, New…You?
Written by Jasmine Brown of The Brokins.

As the clock turns over into a new year, new ad campaigns pop up along with the new year resolutions of masses: “New Year New You”. The myriad contemplate what things they will resolve to do in the year to come. These things ostensibly lean toward shedding the old you and cultivating something else. “My new year resolution is to be more fit, to eat better, to lose weight, to drink less coffee, etc. etc.” The tradition of stating a new year’s resolution bring up thoughts of change, dissatisfaction, and self-grading for some, and even promise. “If I eat better I will be a better me…a “new” me.

Are these things inherently wrong? They are not bad ideas- unless they are attached with loaded meaning. The tradition of the new year resolution is something that is attached to the ideal that if we follow through with resolution we will have accomplished something that will elevate the year we lived higher than others. The problem with “New Year New You” begs the question, “but what is wrong with the old me?”

During the new year so many of us get wrapped up in the idea that if we can become someone new and someone different, things will be better. Fact of the matter is that new data is showing a paradox in how people are discovering real happiness. It is the paradox that you cannot become different until you embrace what you are now. Moreover, many researchers and theorists in the field of Positive Psychology are contending that maybe the best you isn’t a “new you” but rather a more honest you that you have NOW. What would our new year resolutions look like if we reframed how we view ourselves? We focus so much on pathology, what is wrong with us, that we forget the power we hold in each of us. SO what that you don’t have Jillian Michael abs! She doesn’t have your sense of awesome…now does she?!

I’m only saying that the tradition of: “2012 will be the best year ever because I am going to start_______fill in the blank” might be causing more harm than good to our psyche.

Let us consider well being in a different light: what are you good at? What strengths do you have NOW? What do you adore about yourself NOW? Let us resolve to create a year where we embraced our small victories and our realities instead of creating lofty goals that fade as soon as Valentine’s Day candy rolls out.

Jasmine
banksj@jbu.edu

Jasmine Brown of The Brokins is the kind of girl you either love or really love.  She is smart, wet-your-pants funny and sometimes brutally honest.  She has a unique and even snarky outlook on life.  You will learn a lot of things you’ve always wanted to know and even some things you didn’t on her blog The Brokins.