Day one of three-hundred and sixty-five.
The first blank page in a new journal or sketchbook begging to have words or pictures etched into its surface.
A fresh start. A new beginning. A new year. The end of one decade and the beginning of another.
Except this isn’t your typical ‘new year new me’ type of post. I have an idea and I’m asking you all to hear me out for a moment! Instead of changing the person you should be in the new year why don’t you build off the person you were this past year? Don’t change who you are, but add to who you are. Take those trials and tribulations and let them build you, mold you, and design you into a tenacious, more powerful version of yourself for this year. The world does not need a new you, it needs a more refined you.
If you want you can make the typical New Years Resolution to lose weight, eat healthier, or save money, just to name a few. But when you can’t uphold the promise you’ve made yourself, you catch yourself feeling discouraged and burnt out only a few weeks into the new year. Statistics say only 8% of American’s keep their resolution. To me, a New Year Resolution seems like a depressing way to start off the new year given the fact that people don’t often give themselves realistic expectations. People can’t make a massive lifestyle change between December 31st and January 1st giving themselves only overnight to transform their minds into a new way of thinking.
As I reflect on this past year I can think of a hundred ways I have failed as a mother, as a wife, and as an equestrian. I can vow to myself that I will never make those same mistakes again in the new year. But, that’s not a reality. Instead, I am choosing to see those mistakes acknowledge that I made them, and I will give them the power to shape me into a more refined version of myself for the New Years.
I know this New Year will hold it’s own unique challenges as my children grow to be one year older, my husband and I celebrate another anniversary, and my horses experience another dreadfully hot summer and freezing winter the Arizona desert has to offer. But through it all, I will not have changed who I am. Instead, I will choose to see how I reacted to the challenges of the past year and how I can react more beneficially this year.
Two-thousand and twenty will be yet another year of personal growth, both in my home and at the barn. The only New Year Resolution (if that’s what you would even call it, I don’t really know) is: I vow to see my mistakes made in this past year and allow them to give me the experience to know better and to refine me in the New Year.
With that being said, Hello, Twenty Twenty!
I’d love to hear from you whether you engage in the New Year Resolution tradition or not! You can drop a comment below or shoot me a message on my personal Instagram account @unbridledmama. Happy New Year!
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Emily Griffin is a mama to two stunning daughters, a wife to her hunky husband, an experienced equestrian, and an Arizona native. She resides in a very small town in Southeastern, Arizona. Her days consist of raising children, everything equine, reading/ writing, and balancing the fine line between motherhood and insanity. She appreciates nature, the smell of a satisfying rain, and the lovely sunsets the Arizona deserts have to offer. Her life is unbridled in every sense of the word and she wouldn’t have it any other way! Follow her on Instagram at @unbridledmama.
