“New Year, New Me” — Why the Hostility?

It’s that time of year again, when the ever-divisive social media posts come out to play.

Three types in general are currently taking over my newsfeed — one that’s rounding up the years success, and looking towards another great year; one that’s using the classic “new year, new me” phrase; and one that’s moaning about the latter.

You know what? I don’t have a problem with the ‘new year, new me’ stuff at all.

If people want to use this as a milestone to change their lives then good on them! Why should anyone judge them for that? Yes many may fail, but a few will inevitably stick to their resolutions, make it through and truly make a change to their lives (and maybe even the lives of others) for the better.

It’s hard for a lot of people to just get up on any given day of the week/month and say to themselves “you know what, I’m going to change my life today”. A new year marks a fresh start for a lot of people, both psychologically and physically too (after the binge eating and drinking of the holiday period).

Yes, gyms will be full on January the 1st, our news feeds full of new diets, new training regimes, new work ethics, new relationships, but these die down and the truly committed remain — the ones we eventually respect for their commitment to their personal cause.

People I know personally have taken up running as a new year resolution in previous years and have now run multiple marathons; some decided to weight train and have now worked into competitions; some decided to launch new businesses and now see themselves in different places of the world doing amazing things; one even gave up drinking along with all the other ‘Dry January’ people and hasn’t had a drop of alcohol since.

I’ve even used the phrase myself in the past and fallen into the ‘complacency group’ who just let it all be talk and no action, which made little difference to my life. However, when I originally wrote this article, it was after the first break in a while over Christmas and the new year gave me the energy I needed to grow myself and Yena into what it is today.

This year I’m hoping for more of the same and wishing success to every one of you too.

All I ask is not to frown upon a person because they want to better themselves, but ask how you can help them make their goals a reality.