New Year More You

‘New Year New You’

This phrase has irritated me for years. It started when I was a copywriter and particularly sensitive to insensitive, highly unoriginal messaging.

Yet again, this January, you can’t go anywhere or read anything without having ‘New Year New You!’ shouted in your face. Its like the tired old plastic Christmas tree with the near naked branches and the squiffy stand that’s been dragged from the loft every year since 1976. Everyone knows it’s shit but no one can be bothered to do anything about it.

Knowing what I know about life in an ad agency, this is what I imagine happens.

Around November, when the New Year campaigns are being conceived, a junior creative team, having been given the task of concepting some enticing decals for a window display or a double page spread in a premium glossy, spend days hunkered down in a breakout space. 18 coffees and 3 Itsu lunches later they have approximately 52 ideas for the creative director, which they’ve categorised into ‘the best’, ‘the rest’ and ‘just for giggles’.

They stick them up on a wall and the creative director, let’s call him Spike, peruses them through his thick specs. Spike takes out a sharpie, makes a couple of (admittedly genius) adjustments here and there. He asks to see one in fuschia, or with a different typeface, before eventually selecting a handful to insert into a much laboured-over Keynote presentation.

So far this process has cost a gazillion pounds.

Then this happens:

They present the concepts to the client, with mock ups showing exactly how these brave and beautiful designs will look on their ad/in their shop/rendered onto a wall in Soho by a graffiti artist called Sway or Smasher or something. And the client says they love them. All of them. But the budget’s been cut and actually they’re just going to go with what the previous agency did last year. ‘New Year New You’. It ticks all the boxes, they explain. Can’t really be bettered.

Spike is livid. The junior creative team, borderline suicidal.

Nevertheless, here we are.

New-Year-New-You-land.

A land where it is absolutely inconceivable that you think anything else about yourself and your body other than, ‘Is not acceptable and must be altered’.

And before you go believing this nonsense, please know that what’s going on here is a classic case of ‘It’s not you it’s me’. Or rather, ‘It’s not you, it’s them.’ You see dears, self-confidence is, how can I put this? – non-commercial. If it weren’t, the diet industry wouldn’t be worth £2bn worldwide, would it now?

To be super explicit about this (because why not?), your post-Christmas body loathing is a money-generating machine.

Know what’s extra poopy? The fact that the companies ramming these tired, but nicely alliterative and probably decently effective platitudes into our eyes and ears throughly January are usually the same ones that were fuelling your mince pie hoedown through December.

So what do I want?

Considerate, positive, enlightened and inspirational marketing? Of course. That would be excellent for everyone I think. And at least give us something more refreshing to look at come next January.

But I also want you to know this.

A new you is not what is needed.

Nor a better you.

Nor a thinner, leaner, fitter, more pulled together you, with whiter teeth, shinier shoes, a pay rise and a handsome lover.

You are fine as you are

You are more than fine

You are perfection.

You are the divine in human form (I’m not even joking).

What I would suggest as an alternative to investing in a ‘new you’, is to focus on becoming more you.

That’s right. More of the you that you already are.

Silly. Sensitive. Loud. Quiet. Skinny. Round. Tall. Short. Wacky. Wonderful. Gentle. Caring. Brave. Brash. An artist. An athlete. An ice dancer. An adventurer. Curse-dropping. Giggle-inducing. Prone to tears. Prone to tantrums. Motherly. Bubbly. An early bird. A night owl. A philosopher. An environmentalist. An experimentalist. A Kardashian-a-like. A connoisseur of rare Italian literature. A fangirl. A foodie. Flaky. Fake-tanned. Princess pale. A BFF. A BFG. Friend. Sister. Wife. Lover. Loving. Loved.

You are a thousand different things. Sweet sixteen could be the best year of your life if you, ever so bravely, show them to the world.

Brene Brown, superheroine of shame research, says this.

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”

Who needs a New Year’s resolution when there are those kinds of highs on offer?

Think how much collective awesomeness we could generate if, just for this year, we quit it with the diets and the gym pilgrimages and the striving to become and ever-increasing ‘better’ version of ourselves, and decided instead to simply allow ourselves to BE. And to be SEEN. And, as an upshot, give others permission to be and be seen too.

I can hear it now. The global sigh of relief.

Am I saying that health and fitness isn’t a worthy cause or outlet for your time, energy and, frankly, money?

Not at all.

Wellness – with its life-transforming miracle powers – is the worthiest cause around in my opinion.

Its also significantly stronger and more juicy when built on a foundation of loving and accepting yourself fully in the present moment (As Mark Darcy so swooningly put it, ‘Just as you are’).

I can vouch for this 100%. I’ve tried to be thin for all kinds of misguided reasons. I must have muscled my way through thousands of dull workouts in over-the-top and over-priced gyms with the express intention of what? Looking better in photographs? I can’t even remember.

And I’ve gradually discovered that I really couldn’t give a toss about being a size eight or having Obama arms. I want my body to be a product of movement that makes me happy and food that makes me feel awake, alive and on fire, so I can be the best human I can be. And a great teacher, no less.

So a piece of toast to this fellow humans.

This piece, by Lizzie Nichol, originally appeared here.

Lizzie is speaking at The Marketing Society Mind, Body and Soul event Tue 12 Jan. For tickets and info head here.

Follow her @howweeatnow