Create a better YOU.
A gift to yourself for 2025 & beyond!
With summer here, 2024 is about to conclude, and the festive season is almost upon us. It’s a time of the year when most of us are either frantically thinking about what gifts to buy, how to organise this holiday season, how to meet expectations that we and others have placed upon us or experiencing some kind of dread or maybe sadness while managing through exhaustion.
It’s endless!
And, somewhere amidst this whirlwind, a question often arises: ‘What about me?’ This simple yet profound query can lead us to unexplored territories within ourselves, places we may not want to visit, thoughts we do not wish to welcome and push us to say or do things we might later regret.
These thoughts, events and curve balls can leave us humbled and question many things in our lives.
Does this resonate with you?
I have been reflecting on this year and the last few years in my own ways. The thoughts have mainly focused on what this year taught me about myself and how I feel from within. Over time, I recognise that I have changed my ways of being, which came about as a response to several of those ‘curve balls’ as I mentioned earlier. Since life is constantly evolving, understanding your edges and markers (boundaries!), being adaptable, feeling enough within ourselves, responding rather than reacting (yes, they are two very different things!), and gradually shifting our mindsets and behaviours can be supportive and a real game changer! As such, life’s curveballs can often be opportunities that hold the capacity to help us grow.
Small changes in our attitudes towards ourselves, others, and our behaviour can go a long way to making changes we want to experience and see.
We can’t change anyone else but can work from within. Following the global pandemic and the current global trajectories, it’s easy to feel we have no control. However, the truth is, we have control over certain things, including our personal growth and the ability to co-create and alter our ways of being in this world.
It is equally essential to identify what bettering yourself is not. Being a better person is not about:
Being perfect.
Think that there is something ‘wrong’ with you, and it needs fixing.
Compromising on your values and integrity to fit in.
Reaching a final “best self” destination.
As you enter the last month of 2024, consider contemplating on these two questions (helpful journal prompts):
Who do I want to be in 2025 (and beyond)?
What do I need to do to make this happen in action, thoughts, self-talk, or is there something I need to learn?
Alternatively, you may have your own questions and motivations for 2025, and I encourage you to ask yourself what they are and then contemplate the answers.
Regardless of your starting point, know that we all deserve to have a healthy relationship with ourselves and supportive and mutually beneficial relationships with others in our lives, including our community. A personal operating system that includes the ability to live a life aligned with our core values and healthy personal boundaries can be a profound difference between surviving and thriving!
Take a step forward to make a change for yourself in 2025.
As Arthur Ashe, the first black player to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and a social activist for civil rights and humanitarian causes, said,
“Start where you are. 🌱 Use what you have. 🌞💧 Do what you can. 🌳”
TO CONCLUDE……
Bettering ourselves, acknowledging and accepting we may need help can feel confronting and sometimes overwhelming. If you need support in your desire to seek self-improvement, allow yourself to reach for professional support.
I am willing to support you in your journey to realistically co-create the life you aim to have and help you give yourself the gift of creating a better version of yourself!
Thank you for visiting and reading.
Gratefully,
Nisha
