If I read one more article, one more post about it being a new year and how “I’m going to be a new person this year!” or “I’m changing everything this year!” I think I’ll scream!

Is no one happy with who they are? Is no one happy with their life? Even any part of their life? Why do we continually look at other people’s lives and decide if our lives were just like that, then we’d be happy? And do you realize those people you think you want to be like actually look at other people and feel the same way?

Everyone seems to want to make all these changes in their life, their circumstances, themselves. And it seems they think all it takes is a date on the calendar to make those changes. As if by magic, turning the month from December to January will transform them into exactly who they want to be, or think they want to be.

Is it really that simple? Can a piece of paper that proclaims it’s a new month in a new year suddenly change your entire life? Your entire YOU?

I think not. Because there’s a lot more to it than just saying, “I’m going to be different in this new year. I’m going to stop thinking this way, and start thinking that way.”

“I’m not going to do XXX anymore.”

“The new me is going to be so much better! I’m going to enjoy life so much more because….”

Because of a date on the calendar?

Suddenly that’s going to change you from the person you’ve been for years into the new person you picture yourself becoming?

It isn’t that easy. You don’t just automatically wake up one morning and become a totally different person, with different thoughts, different attitudes, different ideas. Sure we try, and for a while, it actually may work.

But then we find ourselves going back to our same old self, with our same ideas, same attitudes, same prejudices. And sometimes we don’t even notice.

Why? Because change isn’t done overnight. It’s a process. It has to come from within; first from our hearts, and then from our head. Our hearts must want to make changes, and if our heart is sincere, then our heads, our thinking, can go along with it.

But you’re never going to totally change everything about yourself. Because who you are, is who you are. No matter how much you want to become someone else, there’s always going to be certain parts of you that will stay the same. Certainly you can improve yourself, change your ideas and your attitudes, but you’ll always be yourself.

You cannot totally become someone else. Because you’re you. Sure, you may eventually make changes in your life for the better, and people may say the like the “new you” a lot better.

But you are still who you are. You’re not, and never will be, that other person you may envy so much and want to be exactly like. You were uniquely created; there’s only one you. You are the only person in the entire world with your own unique fingerprints, your own unique DNA. No one else will ever be exactly like you. Even identical twins have subtle differences, not only in appearance, but in ideas, thoughts, and attitudes.

God created you just like He wanted you to be. Who are you to say He was wrong?

For myself, I actually like who I am. It’s taken me years to come to that realization, and I do believe that such a realization actually comes with getting older, or should I say, more mature? I am who I am, even though I am a work in progress, and always will be. I accept me for who I am, and I hope other people do as well.

And once again for this new year, I’m still going to be me. I may develop new ideas, new attitudes. I will probably make some new friends, and go to some new places. My hairstyle may even change.

But I’m still going to be me.