By Michelle Jacobs 2-Minute Read
January used to come with a script.
New year, new you!
Start your year off RIGHT!
Fix everything you didn’t like about yourself last year!
If you grew up between, say, 1968 and the mid-’90s, you definitely remember those magazine covers shouting from the checkout lane or inside your mailbox. For decades, January was positioned as the annual audit of our bodies, our habits, and our worth. Miss the window? Too late—the year was a goner…and you’ll surely be 20 pounds heavier by summer.
It’s outdated thinking (and those magazines are barely around anymore anyway). And I don’t know about you, but I’ve just about had it.
This year, let’s turn the page and opt out of the self-improvement treadmill.
No reinvention.
No “who should I become?” panic.
No belief that the first 31 days of the year determine your value.
At Womaness, we are officially ending that subscription, swiping in another direction, shutting the app. January is now dedicated to something far more powerful:
Recognition. Reflection. Filling your own cup—not emptying yourself trying to fit a mold.
Because let's be real:
Most of us spend more time tearing ourselves down than acknowledging what’s already good, already strong, already here. We forget that confidence isn’t a makeover. It’s an inside job.
So we’re declaring January the Month of Standing Tall. Shoulders back. Eyes open.
And mouths ready to insert yourself into your own story again.
Your only “resolution” this year?
One honest compliment to yourself, every single day.
Try these:
• I’m a good friend.
• I work hard at my job.
• I have a wonderful family.
• I have great taste.
• My legs are fantastic.
• I’m smart.
• I learned how to knit.
• I’m surprisingly good at math.
• I read 100 books last year (and will read more in 2026!).
• I made a damn good dinner last night.
• I sat quietly for 10 minutes without my phone.
• I’m an excellent pet mom.
Me.No.Pause.
That’s 365 reminders of who you really are.
And if you write them down? You’re building a record—a literal archive—of your strengths. That matters. It shifts things. Not overnight, not magically, but meaningfully. I know this sounds small, but if you use the art of positive thinking (which I believe is a real thing), the year will truly start off right.
This doesn’t mean you can’t want change. We all have our “I wish I was…” thoughts. But those wishes don’t diminish your worth right now. They don’t erase your experience, your humor, your hard-won wisdom as people and as women. As the great Taylor Swift says, “You’re on your own, kid. You always have been.”
Meaning: the confidence you’re looking for has always lived inside you.
Standing tall and proud starts within...long before any new habit, routine, or product.
So this January, give yourself permission to skip the reinvention. And instead?
Insert yourself back into your own life—fully, boldly, proudly—just as you are.
Happy New Year from all of us at Womaness!
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