Happy New Year — You’re Fat and Unorganized!
by Katy on December 17, 2013 · 9 comments
The new year’s period is a time of reflection. Ten ten lists for the previous year abound, and there’s never a poverty of new year’s resolution ideas. Join Jenny Craig or a gym, start budgeting, get organized, or better yet, buy all the accoutrements that go with your goals.
There’s one common theme that I see with pretty much all new year’s resolutions:
You are less than you should be, but buying our product or services will transform you into the person you should be.
Too fat, too unorganized, a financial mess and generally unworthy to be included in the beautiful people’s club.
Greeeaat. . . .
Luckily, there are new year’s resolutions that do not include a trip to Storables or 24 Hour Fitness. Working exercise into your day can be as simple as walking or biking errands and if organizing all your stuff is overwhelming, it probably means that you have too much stuff.
The new year’s resolution industry, (and yes, selling exercycles, weight loss services and elaborate organizing systems is an industry) would not exist if people were content with themselves and their lives. If people didn’t feel like they were unworthy of happiness without a flat stomach and an organized closet.
I’m here to say that it’s okay to feel good about yourself even if you’re overweight or have mismatched hangers. And if losing weight or getting organized is a goal for you, then go right ahead and pursue that goal. But please don’t do it because some celebrity spokesperson makes you feel bad about yourself.
Do you make the same new year’s resolutions every year? Or perhaps you set a resolution that actually stuck? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
“it’s okay to feel good about yourself even if you’re overweight or have mismatched hangers.”
This is a very refreshing sentence. Thanks!
My most successful resolution was to stop buying new clothes. Although I faltered a couple of times within that first year, I eventually stopped and haven’t looked back! Excluding socks and underwear, which I haven’t had to replace in the last few years, I don’t think I’ve had a problem thrifting anything that I’ve needed.
I stopped going to malls and stores (except for necessities) between Thanksgiving and January 15th. Has this helped me? Yesssss!
It helped me so much that I stopped going year around. My bank account, my general well being, and my clutter problems have been helped greatly. Only if I need to replace something do I venture there, and I have found that shopping is not a past time for me. I bike, take long walks, finish poetry I started, cook from scratch, visit friends and family, and in general have more time for things I want to do!
The truism within the advertising world is “create a lack, then fill it.” When you see an ad, you know it exists to make you want something – likely something you wouldn’t think to want otherwise (strawberry flavored Count Chocula, perhaps). Being aware of this might help you stay strong when trying to resist the next cool thing. Teach this to your kids, too – they can be even more suceptible, and definitely more persistent in asking for a thing.
(Not that all marketing is a bad thing. Sometimes I see something that would actually be useful to me or someone I know. But it took a long time of deconstructing (and constructing!) ads to be able to tell the difference.)
I always make the same resolution every year. Sometimes I meet that goal and other years not so much. My one resolution is to remove the Jack-o-lantern from my front porch before I need to use a shovel to do so. 😎
Since leaving the corporate world, I’ve really missed the annual cycle of setting goals and assessing your acheivement. So for the past couple of years I have written a set of goals for myself. It helps me plan and focus my energy. It also gives me something to work towards each week when otherwise it is easy to get lost in the week to week and endless dinners and diaper changes.
If I find a situation or aspect of myself that I wish were different, I write it down on its own page in my notebook I have for that purpose. Then I follow it with some ideas about what it is that I really want to change, and why. Every time one of these situations or aspects of me comes up, I go back later to my notebook and think, was it really so bad? If I still want to change whatever it is, I keep writing stuff down and remembering it. Eventually I’m able to either make progress, or else discard the idea as self-criticism.
Both outcomes are valuable, and doing this is free, except for the cost of the notebook which I would have had anyway. Overall, it works one HECK of a lot better than deciding I should do something, or be a certain way, and trying to pull a metaphorical 180 so I can get there as fast and directly as possible. Some people might be able to decide overnight that they need to be “more organized” or whatnot, but for me that strategy simply doesn’t work. I get more value from deciding not to beat myself up.
I resolved last year to take at least one picture a week of myself with at least one of my children regardless if I or the house looked presentable. I didn’t quite get 52 shots in but there are definitely dozens more pricesless pictures of my children than there has been previously.
What a fabulous idea! I have plenty of my son, dogs, son and dogs, husband, husband and dogs, etc that when I look back, it makes me sad that I am not in any.
I will try to work on this this coming year!