Self.
A New Year Buzz Word...and a Shift in Focus
January is a common time for self-reflection, making self-improvement goals, and focusing on self care. There is a lot of talk about SELF…and you likely are surrounded by gurus promoting ways you can be your “best self” in 2025.
A healthy sense of self-awareness is a good thing. But our culture is arguably obsessed with a focus on SELF. Selfie photos. Self care. Self improvement. “America [self] First.”
Of course, you have to take care of yourself to be able to function… and to take care of others (put your own oxygen mask on first, right?!). But focusing on ourselves is our human nature. Whether conscious or not, we are inherently a selfish species… just ask any brand new human (toddler) who claims everything to be, “Me First!” and “Mine!” No one teaches us to think of our selves first. We simply default to our own needs as a mode of survival. Thinking about “self” is really not a heroic task…it’s our natural state.
Note: There are certainly seasons of life, like in parenting young children or serving as a care-giver, when we can feel a loss of our “sense of self.” That’s another conversation for another day, and I’m not here to minimize that very real struggle.
In this very moment of January 2025 you have plenty of people in your life shouting from the rooftops:
“Do what is best for you!”
“Make this your best year ever!”
“Be your best self!”
There is value in some aspects of those mantras, but I’m not here to add to the “New Year, New You!” noise… Rather, I’m going to ask some lesser discussed questions for us to consider as we embark on the journey of 2025:
How can we focus more on others in this new year?
What if we focus more outward than inward?
How can we stand in neighborly defiance of a culture that demands “self first”?
These are questions I’m sitting with (for myself ; ) and wanted to pose for you to ponder too. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I would like to explore this topic together in January 2025, as we are surrounded by a “self-centric” culture.
Next week, I’ll be sharing about a recent trip I took to a place where people are notoriously “self-sufficient”… and some impactful interactions I had that challenged my assumptions.
Until next time…I would love to hear your take- how can we dispense an outward focus in a world that prescribes self-centeredness???
In pursuit of an inside-out approach,
-Dr. Peek