New Year, Same Me

Christina Kozik:

Hello and welcome to Just Needs, a podcast where we talk about parenting children with disabilities. I’m your host, Christina Kozik, and I’m so glad you’re here. This podcast is a project of Exceptional Lives, a nonprofit organization that supports families like yours. You can learn more about Exceptional Lives at our website, www.exceptionallives.org.

Welcome back to our Holiday Survival series. This is the final episode in our five episode series. If you missed any of them, you can catch them all on our website or by subscribing to this podcast. 

Today I want to talk about the new year and what going into the new year means to me. 

Years ago, I stopped setting New Year’s resolutions. I noticed that when I set a resolution, then lost interest or didn’t hit milestones when I thought I should, I’d give up.

Then I’d beat myself up for giving up, and then I’d try to start again, but honestly, I just couldn’t, or I didn’t really want to. And then I would go round and round with myself, and by mid-February, I felt defeated. 

Sound familiar? So I stopped making resolutions. Instead, I started focusing on things I accomplished over the year and what I wanted to keep working on.

Some years that thing of focus was physical fitness and continuing what I was doing. Some years it’s been continuing to learn and get better at a new skill I picked up, like woodworking or sewing. One year it was simply leaning into a new normal after my son was born. 

What I discovered is focusing on the good and continuing to build on those things made me feel better about myself and allowed me to continue to grow in a way that didn’t feel hard.

I know that I don’t have the mental space or energy to start a new meal prepping routine or to add 15 minutes of yoga into my day, so instead of focusing on what I could be doing, I’m focusing on what I can do and want to do. 

The simple saying of, “I do enough and I am enough,” is what I want to shape my upcoming year round. 

So my challenge to you is to sit back and reflect on this past year. What was good? What have you been doing that makes you happy or makes your time more meaningful? 

Instead of focusing on what you could be doing or becoming, let’s celebrate how amazing you already are and share that with those around you. My hope is that this helps you reframe your mindset as you go into the new year. You’ve got this.

Again, thanks for listening to this series. I really enjoyed sharing these episodes with you. We’ll be taking a short break on the podcast to celebrate the holidays with our families, but we’ll be back in your feed the first week of January. 

This podcast was written and presented by me, Christina Kozik, for Exceptional Lives. You can subscribe and follow the podcast at our website, www.exceptionallives.org/justneedspodcast. 

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