New Year, New Me

Molly Fairclough, 1st Jan 2020
Tags: Life Blog Body image Identity Insecurity Self-worth

New Year’s Resolutions: Are they inspirational or just a waste of time?

The answer is, they’re kind of both.

Being inspired to make changes in your life for the year ahead isn’t a bad thing. Self-improvement can be very positive, but there are good and bad ways to do it. 

One big New Year’s Resolution that people often make is to lose weight. There’s nothing wrong with that; in fact, when done healthily, it can be a really positive thing.

However, the thing I disagree with is the strong association between losing weight and gaining self-worth.

Viewing weight loss as success.

We are so programmed in today’s society to view losing weight as succeeding, which means that we see gaining weight as failing.

You don’t need me to tell you how toxic that is.

I think, as women especially, we are obsessed with the idea of being smaller, weighing less, and generally just taking up less space. But it’s important to learn that a smaller body does not make you a better person. 

Image Credit: Giphy

I don’t know when we started caring about our bodies so much, but it’s a massive waste of time. The way you look is literally the least important thing about you.

Having a bigger bum, or smaller waist, will not improve your life at all; aside from the fact that you might gain a bit of confidence, but that’s an issue in itself.

Self-worth should not depend on how we look.

Our confidence and self-worth should not depend on how we look, but on all of the other, much more important things that make us who we are. Such as:

• Kindness
• Humour
• Personality
• Intelligence
• How we treat those around us
  

This year, as opposed to focusing on losing weight, try to focus on the things that matter.

Instead of making an aesthetic New Years Resolution, maybe make one to try and be more kind, or more generous, or to learn a new skill. 

Image Credit: Giphy

You are so much more interesting than the way you look.

So, let’s focus on making 2020 the year of MORE self-love, instead of LESS body fat.