Resolving to Love Yourself in 2016

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“This post was inspired and sponsored by Domain.ME, the provider of the personal domains that end in .ME. As a company, they aim to promote thought leadership to the tech world. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

The beginning of the New Year, you can feel the buzz of possibility; the hope for the future. It pulses wherever you go. Rather than resolving to lose weight or make more money, what would happen if you made a New Year’s resolution to love yourself in 2016. What if you made a resolution to learn to take care of yourself? What if……..

New Years resolutions have been a thing for as long as I can remember. Promises to lose weight or to make more money are “normal” this time of year. Promises that people believe will grant them the happiness they seem to lack in part of their lives.

Each year begins like the last. “Maybe this year will be different,” you tell yourself. “Maybe this year I will have the willpower not to eat; not to spend my money; not to give up.” you sigh. Very quickly the joy of hope turns to the fear of failure  and eventually the pain of self loathing. Another year, another “failure”.

Year after year it’s the same again and again. What’s going to make this year different? What’s going to make this year the year your finally meet your goals? You wonder.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again the same way expecting different results. Yet, this is what many of us do every single year with New Year’s Resolutions. It’s madness. It’s no wonder so many people end up unhappy and mad at themselves because of their “failure”. It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to resolve to do something different this year.

There is nothing wrong with setting goals and trying to figure out what makes you happy. That’s one of the awesome things that make life amazing. What isn’t great is setting yourself up for failure. When you set goals that you aren’t passionate about, you are setting yourself up for failure. Life is so busy, so chaotic that a lot of the times we don’t even know what we are passionate about or who we are anymore. We spend so many hours of the day busy, working, taking care of others that we don’t remember the last time we checked in with ourselves. Who are we anymore?

In the first thirty years of my life, I had no idea who I was anymore. Married at a really young age, mother by 20, mother of two by 23 my whole life was spent hoping I would have the strength to get my life together. Over the years, I professed that I would be treated how I deserved if I had the perfect body. If I was thinner, I would be happier. Years money was tight, I would tell myself that if we stopped wasting money we would be happier. Year after year, I would promise myself that this year would be different. This year would be better.

Years past, then decades, and you know what? Nothing changed. Each year I was more and more unhappy. Losing more and more of myself each year. It wasn’t until my divorce at the age of 28 that I realized that things had to change. I didn’t give up on New Year’s resolutions, but I did stop resolving to lose weight and wishing for more money. The year of my 29th birthday was the first year that I resolved to love myself unconditionally. It was the year that my life changed forever.

Seven years later, I can tell you that I am finally happy. The amount of time I spend telling myself I am worthless has all but vanished. Positive, awesome changes have graced my life because I changed my perspective and learned to love and accept myself.

It was a really bumpy road learning to accept myself, but it was worth every step along the way. Eight years later, I am happy, fulfilled, and truly looking forward to each and every New Year. No longer do I hope a New Year will “fix” something in my life. No longer do I hang my head in shame when I’ve failed yet another New Year’s resolution. Instead my life is filled with hope, passion, and a love that I’ve never had before I made this change.

Rather than making your typical weight loss or financial New Year’s resolutions, change things up. Challenge yourself! Make this year the year your resolve to take care of you. Make this the year you learn to love yourself. Explore who you are, learn what you are passionate about, become your own best friend. You owe it to yourself to be kind to yourself and realize that you are an awesome, quirky person that deserves every happiness in the world. You just have to start with you. Your journey to happiness lies within yourself. You just have to believe it.

This post was inspired by Domain.ME, the provider of the domain names ending in .ME. 2016 is the perfect time to take control of your online identity. And .ME domains are the perfect way to create a unique persona online for your personal website, blog or business. ​