New Year, Better Me

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

I think we all get annoyed from end of December until the end of January with countless social media posts all saying the same thing… “NEW YEAR… NEW ME”. Then each person that made that statement at the beginning of the year, in some way or fashion goes back to the old them three to four months later.

For the past several years, I came to the conclusion that my only goal was to make each year better than the last. Whether that be by building myself up mentally, emotionally, or spiritually or to allow myself to have new experiences. The goal is to see different things in life than the same mundane routine lifestyle or to continue to repeat the same actions, thus never growing as a person. You ever look at certain people and just find it embarrassing that they might have grown in age, but still do the same things they did as a child?? Yet they are the main ones with the continuous self-proclamations that they are GROWN. That calls for self-reflection… Are you remaining stagnant in your life, even at a young age? Could you be better at setting goals for yourself and actually attaining them? Have you grown as a person? Do you feel that anything you’ve done in the year has made you better that you can follow-up on and grow in the next year? All these were things I began to ask myself a few years ago just by looking at the common mistakes of those GROWN people. These are the ones who are acquiring things, but never fully acquiring wisdom. They still give off the vibe that they will never learn a single thing in life, except a Facebook Live and a twerk session at the club. But I learned a long time ago that being a brown girl with substance was far more valuable than being a brown girl with possessions. Don’t get me wrong– I like to have nice clothes, shoes, handbags etc.. but at the end of the day when that’s all that you have, it leaves you feeling empty and meaningless. Give your life meaning that can’t be taken away by any means. Allow yourself to grow as a person and to experience the various things that life can give you. Mama Rose always says to myself and mini me that “life is about choices”. The choices we make in our lives early on determine who we become in our adulthood. Oprah did not become the mogul she is today without keeping her head in the books or expounding on her life through taking chances to have new experiences and having the tenacity and the will power to accomplish her goals.

Give your life meaning that can’t be taken away by any means

So what about you? Are you determined to be new or better? A new you can easily fade over time, but a better you will continue in the direction because your desire is to grow into the person you are meant to be, by any means necessary. Here’s a couple of ideas to get you going.

1. Set personal goals for yourself. Whether it’s to work on time management or your writing skills or to be a better communicator and friend; find different avenues that aid you to become better so that you become a well-rounded individual.
2. Expound your knowledge. It has always been stated that “knowledge is power” so use whatever knowledge you gain to help you to grow. Learn from the strong women who faced adversity and were still able to succeed in life. This aids you in setting the tone of where you want to be in life and to focus on being studious now in order to get there.
3. Create a list of things you want to do in life. Since I was young, I always wrote down places I wanted to visit or things that I wanted to accomplish. Writing the list enabled me with the mindset of working hard to cross that item off my list.
4. Be adamant about wanting to succeed in life. Determination to not waste the potential that you have is a great help in being better vs. being new. You will continuously want to take the next step and re-calculating past steps to achieve your goal and you will never stop until it’s accomplished.
5. Seek advice. Never undermine the advice and wisdom that older ones can give you. Sometimes there’s a misconception that people older than you are out of touch and you just never know they may have already had the experiences you are having and can give you nuggets of wisdom or the needed encouragement to help you be better in aspects of your life.

In all honesty, I know this is sometimes easier said than done. Yet with the right mentality any of us can attain to being better than the person they were the previous day, month, or year. With determination comes results. You must continuously work at something in order to be something. After all aren’t you worth being better and not just new??

xoxo
-MRG