Join me, Shimmy LaRoux for a Slow Burn. Happy 2023 Everyone. We have finally made it out of 2022! Although, to be very honest, this for the month of January has absolutely felt like it has been a continuation of 2022. It feels like we have been living on December 5758 and 59 as opposed to truly moving into the new year but starting to feel that things are starting to lift a little bit and we can now truly celebrate getting into 2023. 

Now along with celebrations of the new year, both the Gregorian and we are just finished the Lunar New Year celebrations. There's always a lot of talk around "New Year, New Me". I'm gonna make all of these different adjustments. I'm going to treat my body better. We're gonna do dry January, all sorts of things to do at the start of the year as a new way of turning over a new leaf. Now, I love the idea of having a reset and having a very specific time when you're like okay, it's now time to do something new. However, I don't necessarily think that you need a new year to do that. 

For some folks like myself. I like to do this reset on my birthday. I feel like it is my personal New Year. But you know if you choose to do a gen one, that's fine, but it's not necessary. You can pick any random date that is a consistent date for you to take stock and reevaluate. See what worked well for you and then plan out what you want to do for your next year. 

Now in our last episode, we talked a little bit about setting goals. Well, we talked about setting goals, and how to set those goals and what that means and so going hand in hand in that goal setting conversation, there are a couple of things I want to talk about when thinking about the idea of "new year new me". 

The first thing is don't make it that deep. Truly don't make it that deep. Take things that are manageable. So if you go through this entire laundry list of all the things that you want to do this your all the different ways you want to change. What you're really doing is setting yourself up for not being able to accomplish most of those and then feeling really bad about it because you weren't able to accomplish most of those things. So, make all of the things you want to do manageable. Definitely add in a component of a stretch goal or a component of will if I hit this and what might be something better, even better. But again, it is better to have a smaller goal or vibe or accomplishment that you achieve than a large one that you don't. 

So keep that the second thing is to realize that you just can't take yourself that terribly seriously. So you've talked about making manageable goals. And then the second thing is instead of focusing yourself on all of your tasks, let's really focus on who you want to be and what you want to feel and what you want to do. So that's why I say don't take yourself so seriously. Once you start getting yourself so focused into the goals and the tasks and the things you need to hit that you tend to lose sight of the Why are you doing this? Why are you making these changes in the new year? What do you hope to get from it? How do you hope to feel what do you hope to be from it? 

And that's really what I have been meditating on over the past few weeks is well who do I want to be? What is the vibe that I want to put out and that's really the more important thing for me when I think about a new season in life is what what do you want to get out of that? So for some people, it could be I want to be happier for others. I want to be more proud of my work for others still, it could be you know, I want to be recognized. I want you to be fine. So whatever your want is or whatever you want to be. I say start there and then use what you want to do from the year to help you align to what you want to feel. 

The last thing that always goes kind of hand in hand for me with "new year, new me" is getting rid of the old I'm sure that it is a proverb out there that has been said multiple times. I'm not sure exactly where it comes from, but I have heard it a number of times that "you cannot bring in the new until you have gotten rid of the old" so getting rid of the old can mean so many things it could mean getting rid of old attitudes and beliefs. It could be getting rid of old chips on your shoulder. A lot of times things that might have been true a few years ago are no longer true. So you may want to double check that. It could also mean getting rid of friendships and people who you thought were one thing and they absolutely are not. 

It could even mean getting rid of stuff. For example, I have been going through what I have been calling the purge for the past six weeks where I have gone through every single inch of shimmies room and I'm pulling out things that I don't wear that I'm not going to wear that don't fit anymore that are best pieces that I might do something with someday that were gifts that I never use just all sorts of things that have been cluttering up my space. And just knowing that for me to bring in new and fresh things. I physically didn't have space to put anything else so I needed to be able to clean up that space and area so that I could have more brand new space for new props and new costumes and new items. 

But I like to draw that parallel not just when it comes to tangible stuff like props and costumes, but in all areas of your life. You can't bring in anything new until you get rid of the old so just get rid of it. Don't hold on to it. Don't figure "Hey, somebody else might be able to use it". Don't figure out you know, sure it might be no just get rid of it. 

So I think those are three things that we can focus on for "new year new me" that are not not necessarily the kind of goal oriented things that you tend to drop in March and you're upset about it and you're kind of sad about it. It's not started off at the gym in January. But those three things of making your goals manageable, getting rid of things that don't serve you and really figuring out who you want to be as opposed to what you want to do are three things that I think could be super, super helpful when talking about how to reset yourself. 

I would love to hear from you. How are you resetting yourself this year? Did you even start on January one or are you like me starting kind of now into February? What does that mean for you? I'd love to hear your feedback. So you can either email me or drop me a note here on the podcast. I look forward to talking with you soon. I will see you soon. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai