Welcome to the new year. Many of us look at the turn of the year as a time to make resolutions. We are encouraged to think about the new year as an opportunity to change ourselves or our lives. Do more of this, do less of that—try to become a better person, spouse, partner, mother, father or colleague. We want to work harder, smarter or less.
A new year is an open door inviting you to enter and become a new you. It is a blank page for writing your story for the year. We set intentions, identify ways to improve ourselves and take the blank canvas of a new year to design the life we want based on our personal resolutions to lose weight, exercise more, spend more time with family, manage our time more efficiently, etc.
But do you really need to become a “new you?” Maybe you just need to be a better old you. After the past two years, adding pressure to become a new you in a new year may be too much. We all have done the best we could just to get through 2020 and 2021. Can the old you do just as well in 2022 as you did in the past?
I’m going to venture a guess that the answer is yes. Give yourself a break and embrace the old you—or existing you. Accept that there is no “new you” that you need to become. Pause the pressure of changing for a new year.
Think of this year in terms of the personal assessment tool, Strengths Finder. Instead of creating resolutions for a new you—or things that you believe you need to change about your self—focus on your strengths this year and make them stronger. When you meet the new year in this way, a new you will not show up, but a better old you will be amazing.
Wishing you all great things in 2022!
Cheers,
Wendy
Wendy Mann is the chief executive officer of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network and president of the CREW Network Foundation.
Twitter: @crew_wendym
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