new year, same me

I've never understood the expression, "New year, new me!" The clock striking midnight in the real world doesn't change you. Besides, even in fairy tales, the change at midnight took the girl to something she didn't want to be. 
On January 1st, you are you. The same you you were before the year began, the same one who woke up on December 31st and each day before that. There's nothing magical about a new year that suddenly transforms you into someone with different struggles, a better personality, a better life.
All of that...it's not a bad thing. It's not disappointing and doesn't need to be disheartening.
It's good. It's beautiful. You're already enough! You don't need a new year to change into something more. You don't need to be more! You don't need to be less, either.
Goals are great. Knowing things you want to do, tangible accomplishments, like save $2,000 in three months, or work hard to earn a promotion within 6 months, or develop healthy habits by reducing intake of junk food and sticking to a workout schedule, those are good things.
But you don't need to wait for the first of the year for that. Today is the same as yesterday, except for the number I'll write at the end of the date.
I'm still Kaitie. I'm still the woman who loves to laugh, who loves reading Tolstoy, Whitman, and Flannery O'Connor just as much as she loves Will Ferrell movies. I still hate pedicures or anything that involves my legs being touched below the knee. I still don't like going to gyms and much prefer a yoga studio or a hike to a gorgeous overlook or waterfall. I still think bread is the best food group.
I'm the same person I was yesterday, the same beautiful soul, deeply loved by the creator of the universe. And you are too.
I have goals for this year, like spending less time thinking about the next step in life and wishing it to be here sooner, and learn to love my husband better every day. But I'm not resolving to be anyone else. I'm not going to try to become someone else, someone who likes different things or looks completely different on the outside or the inside.
And I want to encourage you to do the same thing. Have goals that run throughout the year. Set new ones often. Reevaluate your priorities and examine your heart frequently.
But stop striving. Stop this relentless focus on the new year and saying it's going to make you new, too. It won't. You're still you. The same beautiful, wonderful, deeply loved and valued you you were last year. Don't try to change that.
Embrace yourself today. Embrace who you are. Be yourself and be joyful in it. 
I will never set New Years resolutions. I'm never going to take the start of a new period of time as an opportunity to change into something totally different. 
Because I'm good enough. I'm exactly who I was designed to be. I have struggles and faults I need to work on, just like anyone else. I'm not a perfect person. I never will be. But I was designed with perfect intention and I won't let the world make me forget it.
You were designed with perfect intention. Don't let the world make you forget it.
Go into this year with one big resolution: Don't resolve to be anyone or anything besides yourself. You've been created with perfect intention and design, and who you are today is just as beautiful as who you were yesterday.
Happy new year, beautiful. I hope it is just as wonderful as you deserve, and I hope you find contentment in it.