Ask Auntie Trash: New Year, New You?
Hello Trash,
With a New Year beginning, I’ve been thinking about starting afresh and making some positive changes in my life. I want to lose weight, I want a better job, I want to start doing fun things (awesome things, like going to the theatre) more, how can I use the new year to help me achieve my goals?
Thanks,
Hay x
Hey, Hey, Hay,
Well, 2016 was a shitter of a year wasn’t it? I don’t blame you for wanting to do 2017 right, and I want you to know that I think it’s great to hear that you’re wanting to make some changes in your life, and also, that you want to start going to the theatre more (holla!). But, I ask you, why wait until the New Year?
This whole ‘New Year, New You’ nonsense is just a way to make people feel bad about themselves, anyway. After a full month of no holds barred gluttony, encouraged by everyone around us, suddenly, January arrives with a side dose of guilt disguised as ‘radical self care’. Because, what do people who’ve been eating and drinking for a month do after? They feel bad. And what do people who feel bad about themselves do? They spend money to make themselves feel better.
Ego is bad for the economy, but low-self esteem is our real currency. We love making people feel bad about themselves, because confident people don’t need to buy things and do things to themselves in order to impress those around them. Just look at the front cover of the nearest ‘lifestyle’ magazine – it’s all about how to lose weight, impress your (wo)man in bed, and how to fit into a space that society deems to be acceptable. Ick.
Let’s get real. There is no such thing as a New You, there is just a happier and healthier version of the person that you are now; think of it as You 2.0, because the 1.0 version of anything always has glitches. Nobody’s perfect, but we can all be better, yes, so what can you do to kickstart your goals and – most importantly – stick to them?
Don’t wait. Start now, and start small. Create manageable goals, like “Today, I will walk home from work.” “Today, I drink water, not fizzy juice.” Christ, I sound like a lifestyle coach, but here goes.
When you make any change in your life, no matter how big or how small, the biggest obstacle in your way is YOU. (Pow, mind blown). Nobody is coming to save you. There is no white knight waiting to kick down the doors of the fortress that is your own procrastination. In order to make a change you must commit fully to it. You’ve got to want to do it, not try to do it because some pseudo-authority figure told you that this is what you should do.
Start 2017 by already making tiny little differences to your life, like, I don’t know, buying a fucking theatre ticket for a show in a few months' time, not when the show starts. If you set your mind to it, you can do anything, absolutely anything. But, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to do so. It’s not going to be easy, it’s probably not going to be fun to deal with (at first) but if you can get through 2016, then you can get through anything, my friend. Absolutely anything at all.
Love,
Trashy xx