The gist: Why Hustle Culture's "new year, new me" approach to setting new year's goals doesn't work, and a new goal-setting mindset to replace it with.
Do you hate the phrase “new year, new me” as much as I do?
I’ve never been a fan of it, but since I’ve started unlearning Hustle Culture, it’s only annoyed me even more.
To me, the phrase (and the mindset that follows it) are the epitome of Hustle Culture’s toxic approach to things like goal-setting, New Year’s, and self-improvement in general.
Hustle Culture teaches us to see ourselves as broken, as problems that need fixing.
Including and especially at the start of the year.
But once you start replacing the Hustle Culture mindset and self-talk with gentler alternatives, things like productivity and goal-setting can be fun and motivating instead of harmful and toxic.
And one of my favorite “Hustle Culture swaps” is switching the “new year, new me” mindset with a “new year, more me” one.
Let’s break down the differences.
The “new year, new me” mindset
Like I mentioned earlier, this approach to New Years and goal setting is about believing we’re a problem that needs to be fixed.
It approaches goal-setting like…
- There’s something wrong with who you are.
- You need to change everything about yourself.
- You are a problem to be fixed.
- You need to prove your worthiness to be happy, loved, successful, etc.
It’s also full of “shoulds” and “supposed tos.”
Because Hustle Culture is so focused on fitting societal norms and achieving stereotypical life success, goal setting with this mindset leads to a lot of goals based on what we think other people want us to do with our career, health, relationships, and other important areas of our lives.
Just look at all the media around diet & wellness culture this time of year for a great example.
When the goals we set aren’t ones we actually want and care about ourselves, beyond proving our worthiness to other people, no wonder we lose motivation, stop making progress, and forget about them a month or two into the year.
But that’s not the only way to set goals.
The “new year, more me” mindset
Like I’ve written about before, working brighter and embracing gentle productivity means telling yourself:
- You’re already doing your best.
- You’re not the problem, some specific things in your life are.
- You don’t need to change to fit the things in your life, the things in your life need to change to fit you.
So how do you set New Year’s goals with this approach?
For me, it means approaching goal-setting thinking, "how can I be more myself?” instead of, "how can I fix myself?"
I like myself. I don't want to be a whole new person.
But that doesn't mean there aren't some things here and there I don't want to change. And I'm making sure to approach those changes with gentleness and compassion.
With that approach, goals aren't ways of changing who I am, they're ways to lean into the person I already am.
For example, I don't set a reading goal to force myself to read when I don't want to. I set a reading goal because I already love reading, and gamifying it makes me love it more.
I also have goals for TV and movie watching and video game playing!
Because these are things I enjoy, and I want to nudge/remind myself to actually make time for them, and goals do that.
Examples of “more me” goals
So, what can setting goals with the “new year, more me” mindset look like?
Let’s walk through a few examples.
Bookworm goals
First, let’s say “being a reader” is an important part of your identity.
Here are some goals that can help you “more me”-ify being a reader:
- A goal for total books read
- A goal for how many different genres you read books from (this year, I have a goal for 10% of the books to read to be outside of my “main 3” genres)
- Completing a themed reading challenge (there are tons of really creative ones online, or you can just stay simple like “read all of Author XYZ’s books,” which I did with Agatha Christie last year and loved so much I almost want to repeat it again this year)
Wordnerd goals
For another example, let’s say you’re a writer (yes, we are pulling from my own goals again lol).
Here are some goals that can help you lean into being a writer:
- A word count goal for words written
- A goal around number of pieces published or projects completed
- A goal around the number of days you wrote
Gamer goals
Or say you’re a gamer.
Some ideas for new years goals could be:
- A goal around how many new games you try
- A goal for reaching a certain point or earning a certain score in your favorite/most frequently played game
- Completing a fandom challenge for a game (for example, the Sims fandom has come up with tons of ways to add more structure to such an open game, and the Stardew Valley community has a lot of urgency-based ones, like “completing the community center in the first year” and reaching other milestones in certain time periods)
Roadrunner goals
Okay, now let’s try some goals for something I’m less familiar with…say you’re a runner. You could set “more me” goals like:
- A goal around total miles ran
- A goal around how many total races (5k, 10k, etc.) you run
- A goal around your pace on an average/everyday run
- A goal around your fastest pace (I think this is called a PR from seeing runner friends post their stats on Insta stories lol)
Lean into who you are
Setting goals and building habits doesn’t need to be a way to discipline yourself into becoming who you think you’re supposed to be.
They can be ways to remind yourself of who you actually are.
And when you approach goal-setting this way, it can be really freaking fun!
So next time you set goals, ask yourself, “what goals can help me be, more me?”