Louise Thompson: You don't need a 'New You'

Resolve to laugh and love more in 2015. Photo / 123RF

"Happy New Year! Happy New You!" How many headlines will you see screaming that this month? Too many to count, I suspect. I am going to be really subversive here (I know, I'm such a rebel) and kick off the first column of the New Year with a directly contradictory premise: You don't need a "New You".

The "You" you are is absolutely perfect in your imperfection. Anyone who tells you you are broken in some way is undermining your personal sovereignty. Especially anyone who tells you you are broken in order to sell something. You are not broken! You are whole and complete.

Life and self-improvement is a PROCESS. A process means it's ongoing. It doesn't end until you do. It is never complete. Life is always in a state of beautiful incompletion.

We are all works in progress. For the whole of our lives. It is never "done". It can never be done! We will be learning and growing into an ever-expanded version of our best self, our whole life. It's a glorious process of growth. It's about expansion and about improvement and inspiration. It's about reaching a little higher, being a little braver, asking for a little more. It's not about fixing something that's broken.

You are not broken and anyone who tells you you are is lying. Don't believe them.
A New Year is simply a convenient time to dust off the cobwebs and assess where we are at with our life's project. Our work in progress. It's just a milestone in the journey. A reminder to pause and reflect.

So, this year I am offering you some different kinds of New Year resolutions. Ones that delight you rather than punish you. Goals that draw you forward effortlessly in the energy of growth rather then beating you up in the energy of "not quite good enough". Principles that lift you up, rather then tear you down for not being smart, thin, fun, rich enough - or whatever. Because you, you dear reader, are enough.

Make your resolutions something that make your soul sing not fill you with an increasing creeping feeling of dread. Resolve toward what makes you grow, not what you want to fix.

• Resolve to laugh more in 2015
• Resolve to love more in 2015.
• Resolve to smell the roses more in 2015.
• Resolve to connect more in 2015.
• Resolve to speak kindly to yourself, with love and compassion, in 2015.
• Resolve to strive for progress not for perfection in 2015.
• Resolve to honour your body and soul in 2015.
• Resolve never to stop growing, learning and expanding in 2015.
• Resolve to be all that you can be, the happiest version of yourself in 2015.

That's what I wish for you. You are not broken. You never were. Embrace the glorious mess of all that you are and the beauty this year is going to unfold at your feet. Happy New Year.