A new you is for whenever you want, not just for January
As we begin another year, we can reflect on that annual January mantra of ‘New Year, new you’. Just how true is that? A whole marketing industry has been built around repeating the message that with the start of the new year comes the imperative to reinvent ourselves. To be fitter, sexier and happier. Better read, better fed and better led. Learn a language! Write that screenplay! Get a new house, body, partner, pet, job…life!
Spare us.
Choosing a path that changes your life isn’t something you need to wait for January to do. You don’t need the fug of Christmas to pass, when the nights are still long, your pockets are empty and your body is crying out for a rest. And you certainly don’t need to do it just because someone is yelling at you on social media, from the pages of a magazine, or from the side of a bus.
The urge to discover what’s possible can strike at any time, and the trick is to know – and respond – to its call when you hear it. Don’t hang on until to some arbitrary date if the role you’re in isn’t bringing you satisfaction or enabling you to realise your potential. But equally, don’t start a journey because it sounds like everyone else is, or until you’re clear on where you want to go.
Our media has much to answer for about the pressure we all face to reinvent ourselves at this time of year. But recruiters are as guilty as any other sector of exploiting the rampant ‘industrial-renewal’ complex which grinds into gear each January. Of course, we get plenty of candidates approaching us in early January, and they get our full attention - as they would at any time in the year. In many cases though, we find they’re searching for something new not because they necessarily want - or are ready to - but because they think they should. And going somewhere or doing something because you think you should is not the same as wanting to.
The pathway to possibility will present itself at the time that’s right for you. That might be during January - but it might not. And so what? Just make sure your eyes and ears are open to the opportunity to start the journey when it presents itself.
By Ricky Wilkes
