Photo by Cristian Escobar on Unsplash
By: Rebecca Liston
Dear Reader,
I don’t know about you, Dear Reader, but some of the New Year marketing turns my stomach.
Yes, yes, I know it is a New Year and yes, yes, I know that means we’re in “flow” of the marketing tide, but why in the name of all things holy do we need to still be fed the “New Year, New You” crap?
I don’t want a New Me.
I kinda like the Me I already have.
I liked her on December 31, 2022, and I still liked her when the clock struck midnight and the ol’ ball dropped.
Sure, she’s a bit quirky and she procrastinates clearing out the closets as long as humanly possible. And sure, her ways of relating every momentous life event to what she ate for dinner that day completely confounds her husband (who lived on God-knows-what during his tour in Iraq and therefore is not a foodie in the least). And yes, it’s true, that she spent more time talking about how to rearrange the living room than it would actually take to just do the rearranging but, heck! She’s still pretty darn great.
Did you know she sings a little song to her dog in the morning as she gives the pup her food? It’s called the “Brecky with Becky Song,” in case you were wondering.
And she dances around the kitchen while waiting for the blender to chop up her frozen fruit and spinach, shaking her booty like no one is watching.
And just the other day she cried in the dress shop when the owner brought in her new rescue pup – I mean, the pup was so darn cute and he raced up to her to kiss her face and only the hardest-hearted of them all wouldn’t weep at that in a room full of strangers, surely?
So yes, she’s a bit quirky and yes, she procrastinates on those closets but all in all, I really like her.
And I don’t really want to replace her with a New Version just because it’s a New Year, just because the guys selling fitness memberships/keto diet pills/new Jeeps/fancy socks think I should.
No. I’m going to keep her. In all her quirky glory, I am keeping this Me that I have grown and tweaked and prodded and shifted and sculpted and morphed because she is, quite frankly, pretty fab.
Does this mean that I won’t grow, tweak, prod, shift, sculpt, or morph any longer? Is this the End of the Road or something?!?
Heck, no.
It just means that I am happy with the Me I have. And that the marketing tactics just don’t apply this year.
And I know that, if I start out happy with where I am, then the growing and the tweaking and the morphing just kinda “happens.” Not because of some external pressure, but just…because.
And that’s the way I like it best.
Big love to you, just the way you are,
XX
Rebecca Liston is cofounder and business intuitive at Las Peregrinas, a creative and consulting agency. She specializes in anchoring folks in a clear-eyed understanding of which path is theirs for the taking. She’s got one foot in the land of the subtle and unseen, and the other foot firmly planted in the land of ruthless pragmatism. Oh, and she swears like a sailor, which makes us love her more.
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