A new year, but not a new you

If you haven’t heard it by now it’s only a matter of time before you do: New Year, New You. As a  professional and really as a fellow human this kinda of messaging isn’t only lazy but also manipulative. It suggests that we should only value ‘new, young, fresh, etc.’ and sets us out on the inevitable path to failure.  According to U.S. News & World Report, 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February! What we should do this year is to remove ourself from the mainstream idea and focus instead on better, on different, on healthy instead of new. The Global Wellness Institute recently released its annual report for 2020. Globally we spent $4.4 trillion dollars in total on wellness with $955 billion going toward personal care and beauty which ranked above every other category including more than double what we spent on traditional and complimentary medicine, nearly three times what we spent on public health prevention (remember this was the beginning of the pandemic), and more than seven times what we spent on mental health. What this tells me is we have our priorities wrong. In 2022 let's resolve to spent our time, money, and energy on strengthen our personal relationships, finding or fortifying our purpose, and focusing on diet and lifestyle.