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Publisher’s Letter: You say you want a revolution


Congratulations! You’ve made it! That’s right. The holidays are behind us and the pounds are upon us and that headache left over from your dear Aunt Irma’s voice is still ringing in your ear and blocking out the calm peace that is supposed to descend upon us like soft snow in the new year.

We don’t have snow, and we don’t have peace. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Feel better? Me neither.

The launch of a new year is fodder for the self-help fiends among us who demand to know what our New Year’s resolutions are, followed by a quick “Did you write them down? You must write them down to make them happen.”

As a writer, I’d like to state that writing things down does not make them happen. Trust me, I’m an expert on this. Clear out the closets. Exercise daily. Drink kombucha and try to muscle past the gag reflex.

See? Didn’t work. (I’ll clean that up later.)

Instead, I’d like you to join me on a New Year’s Revolution. You read that right. Revolution, not resolution. Because I am convinced that the standard resolutions only do one thing: make us feel like we are not enough just as we are. That if we just did this one thing (this one thing that everyone else needs to do, too: Bone Broth Diet, anyone?) Then we, and the world, would be better and more beautiful.

Complete rubbish.

Instead, the New Year’s Revolution looks something a bit more like this: You can do anything you set your mind to. Because you are enough, just as you are. Right now. And you probably deserve better than you are allowing yourself to have. That’s right. We stand in the way of ourselves because we don’t feel worthy enough to ask for more. Expect more. Be more. If you believed, wholeheartedly, that you were—right this moment—on the very top of your game, what would you be able to accomplish? What would you aspire to? Without fear of failure, what would you try to achieve?

These questions pour over into our personal lives as well as our professional lives. By expecting more and striving for more we can (it’s true) actually make our lives more. It’s a revolution.

By not seeing the possibilities outside of our present state of affairs, we are often relying on a quick fix to make us a better person with a better life. But that 30-day fast only lasts for 30 days, and the kids throw clothes back on the floor of their closets as soon as you clean them out. And then when the quick fix falls back on old habits, we deem ourselves failures.

Nothing wrong with a resolution, but it will not change your life.

A revolution, on the other hand, will change your way of thinking about your life. It won’t be a daily list of food items you can eat to stay under 1800 calories, it will be a mindset that you deserve to be happy and active, and you will love yourself enough to plan a healthy meal. It won’t be that your salary will increase due to your efforts you hope someone will silently recognize. Instead, you will create new opportunities to make more money in your field and demand a change in your pay scale. It won’t be that your relationships will become easier and quieter and less complicated. A revolution demands that you seek deeper connections with those that you care about. And you choose to make those relationships a priority.

You make YOU a priority.

I know it seems that we live in a self-focused age. That we need to live outside of ourselves. And I wholeheartedly agree. But we also need to recognize our God-given talents, and the gifts that we bring to others, and we need to celebrate the fact that we are enough just the way we are. Right now. And we should expect the absolute best out of the future. We should live accordingly.

Stuart Smalley—the silly, fictional character from Saturday Night Live—said it best: “I’m good enough. I’ve smart enough. And doggone it. People like me.”

It’s true! People like you. Forget the frenetic closet cleaning. You are perfect just the way you are. Now go embrace 2020 like it’s a new lease on life and squeeze as much out of this new year as you can.

“You say you want a revolution. Well, you know. We all want to change the world.” The Beatles, 1968.

Change your world through the New Year’s Revolution 2020. What will you expect out (and demand) of this new year, knowing you are on top of your game? To quote Abe Lincoln, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Pretty sure ole Abe never had a sip of kombucha.