I chuckle a little when I look at marketing right around New Year’s Day. The echoes of ads repeatedly encouraging “a new you” “your best you” etc. makes me always think – who do you think that I am?

Am I reprogrammable?

Am I a restart button?

Do I appear that I desperately need a new internal infrastructure? 

The new year reminds me that in all the noise of ‘strategic new beginnings’ that I can choose change without having to be something or someone entirely different. 

Every year, 38.5% of US adults set New Year’s  resolutions. Age predicts one’s likelihood of having at least one resolution, with younger adults being the most likely group to have such goals. (insideoutmastery.com) 

I believe the older we become the more mentally settled we are. If it’s not broke don’t fix it. 

But in hindsight we all know that type of mentality can be misleading, dangerous even. 

As Shuri says: “just because it works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.”

But where do we draw that line for our ‘new’ selves with each new year? I’ve broken down a few genuine thoughts that have helped me stay truest to myself while implementing better mindsets.

You can make changes without uprooting everything

Yes you can change habits that make you more productive, grateful or wealthy. You can read more books and take on emotional experiences for perspective but the true habit of intention is what alters our actions. 

New mindset makes room for new memories & experiences

Your experiences set the course.  New experiences bring new ways for the mind to work. When you open new pathways of the mind you discover new possibilities. This is why most make travel a necessity whether to the museum or the tropics. 

This is the same you that has lived through __. 

You’ve lived and seen a lot. Especially since a world pandemic. Taking what you’ve learned and understanding that we still don’t know it all challenges us to not seek it in a box but to seek “out yonder”. Through experiences like the pandemic we learned to adapt our strengths from our experiences. If you overwrite all of that for ‘the new you in the new year’, where does that leave you?

Gauging beginnings, middles and ends

In a simple exercise,  plot your life story within 10 major bullet points. This puts into perspective the full scope of your lifetime. Once you get to your present day read the top bullet and the last one. Are they night and day different? Are they extremely similar? 

When we include these thought processes back into the thoughts of: Am I reprogrammable?

Do I need a restart button? Do I appear desperately in need of a new internal infrastructure? 

The answer can still be yes, knowing that you don’t need to uproot all of yourself for the ‘change sake’ of wanting more. 

We can grow in the new year, have a new mindset and still be the same you.