New Year, New You?
New Year, New You?
2017…Here it is! A new year. We are bombarded with “opportunities” for ways to start the new year out right. New year, new you! From sales on gym memberships and prepackaged diet food regimes to the many Facebook posts that not only talk about new year resolutions, but often mock them. It seems to me that more people make fun of new year resolutions and our inability to keep them, than those that actually take the beginning of a new year as a chance to start fresh. So many memes make their way through social media mocking the very idea of making changes in our lives.
It can be overwhelming to jump “all in” to a big dietary change or exercise regimen. Lots of our “resolutions” bring forward that “I better eat this now, because come January 1, I can’t” feeling or setting aside amounts of time that our days don’t always accommodate. I’m not suggesting that jumping in with both feet is wrong. It can be very empowering. It can be just what we need to jump start an important life change. What I am saying is that our society seems to have made a move from lifting up resolutions as a positive goal, to making them seem impossible and giving up before we start.
The good news is that we don’t need a new year with a long resolution list to make changes in our lives. Rather than seeing the new year as a looming reminder of things we haven’t accomplished in the past, why not see each day as a chance to be more of the BEST you instead of a new you.
A couple of years ago, my son, Michael, bought me a necklace that has a little disk with the word “be” on it. A larger disk is behind it with a bunch of attributes toward which I should strive. It made me think about how I can show the world those characteristics…those that make me be the best me I can be. The person I was created to be.
I can take small steps each day to BE those things. It isn’t a giant, out there – out of my grasp “resolution”. It is about me knowing who I want to be and putting it into practice in small ways each day. One of my “BEs” is to BE more healthy. It is easy to find an app that allows me to track water – a baby step, but a change. My other BEs are more about me as a person. BE open to other’s views, BE confident, BE joyful and BE kind.
Today, in line at Walgreens, I was behind an older woman who had checked out with a basket FULL of after Christmas deals. Wrapping paper, boxes and cards were being shoved into bags while she struggled to get them all on her arm. It would have worked – eventually. She was a pretty spry lady who seemed to be capable, but this task wasn’t easy. It would be better with help. Instead of waiting, I said, “I’ll help you get those out to your car” and I stepped in and took the next bag – no debating about it. No Walgreen’s parking lot is so big that I would be gone from line for more than a minute. She was grateful. The clerk rang my order while I was gone and within 30 seconds, I was back to finish the sale.
It took nothing to be kind in that moment. But do we always do it? I know I don’t. What if we did? What if every time we had the chance to be kind, we were? What if our words were gentle? What if our minds were open to listen to others’ views and try to learn? What if we were tolerant, humble, hopeful, encouraging, grateful…and it showed it what we do and say?
I've chosen to make my BE list about who I want to be centered around the idea of reflecting the love of God in who I am and how I encounter the world and the people in it who are just as special and important as me. This is my starting point. It isn’t a New Year/New You for me….it is about the steps I take to be the best me I can be each day in small ways - intentionally. It is the intentional – taking the time to think about what we show to the world. There is room for the BIG things, too, but what if we all thought about who we were created to be as people and just worked toward that each day? Imagine the New Year/New World we would create.
