New Year, Same Me
Change is Not Automatic
Nothing says Happy New Year like fireworks 🙃 So here is a beautiful firework image to start this article right. 😌
Yes, you read the title right. New year, same me. And I am sure you can relate. It's a new year, and this time of the year we start to hear the popular slogan “new year, new me” everywhere.
Everybody and I mean everybody is saying it. From the people trying to sell you a new workout planner to your organised friend who seems to have her life together. People chant this slogan, as though a flip of the calendar means an automatic change of character.
Don't get me wrong I am not against new year's resolutions, making goals, and having expectations from the new year. In fact, I wrote down my new year's resolution as early as November ‘22. I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything. 🤷♀️ And since I wrote down all my goals, plans, and dreams for this new year I have gone back to add a thing or twenty (who's counting right) to my every growing list.
However, I am not part of the “new year, new me” club and I don't think you should be either. Here is why;
Change is not automatic. Change does not happen overnight. It is a process, a very long and sometimes frustrating process. Just because a new year starts or a new season begins doesn't mean you are automatically transformed. Suddenly new. The only automatic change I know happens when you surrender your life to Christ. And even then the only automatic change that occurs is in the spirit, the soul has to be constantly renewed. You still have to put in the work to ensure that your soul and body are changed along with your spirit.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”Romans 12:2 NIV
Let me say it louder for the people in the back. Change is a process. It doesn't happen overnight. Believing otherwise is very dangerous. One of the reasons we give up on building new habits is that we don't see results quickly enough. We want quick results, but because quick results are not possible, we give up quickly. That is why videos like “Lose Belly Fat in 10 Days” are so popular on YouTube. But is it possible to lose the belly fat that has been growing gradually for years now in ten days?!
This article is a good example of this fact. This year one of my major goals is to stop procrastinating on things and just do them. I had the idea of this since January 1st and look at the date I published it. I am still the same in that regard, I am not suddenly a new person. But I will keep trying, I won't give up because I didn't become a new person at the beginning of the year. Little by little, I will begin to see the change that I intentionally work towards. I will let progress be my guide, not perfection.
I'm sure you're thinking It's not that deep it's just a slogan. Well, I am here to tell you, it is! We tend to internalise what we hear and we hear this saying a lot. I know I have. I have chanted this saying along with others in the new year's prior, only to get disappointed when I am not suddenly a new creature.
Even the Bible says straight and easy is the way that leads to destruction, but the road to life is narrow and hard to find. Matthew 7:14
As I said I have my goals and expectations for the year. But I don't expect all the hundred-and-one things on my list to happen overnight. I know that I need to put in the work and I am ready to do it. I won't always feel this way, some days I won't feel like doing anything at all. On other days I will feel highly motivated to make things happen.
You don't become a new person at the start of a new year, but you can make sure you are not the same person that entered the year by the end of the year.
So this year I employ you, don't buy into the new year new me balderdash. Instead, become a member of the progress report gym. Don't expect the new year to make you a new person, put in the work needed to see that new person before December 31st, 2023. January 1st, 2023 isn't the goal, December 31st is. If it isn't, then it should be.
I wish you a progressive year. Start the work to see the change you crave to see today.
Lovely writing as always