Hey you,

Happy new year! It’s that time again, when we shed the old and welcome the new. We say goodbye to the past 12 months and are encouraged by the chance to start again. At least, I am. I hope you are too, and that’s why I’m writing to you. People disregard and down-talk new years resolutions because “you never keep them anyway”. But I’m not writing about a resolution to be attempted and discarded. I’m talking about a new way of life.

I don’t know what last year was like for you. Maybe a theme was heartbreak or self-hate. Maybe it was lost opportunities and broken dreams. Maybe there was frustration and anger and mistakes. And maybe, probably, you didn’t make it easier for yourself. You let the rejection win, you believed the lies and you accepted defeat. You let people tell you who you are, and you let your low self-esteem beat you up.

Well lovely person, you’re here, on this very website for a reason. Our message resonates with you. You hear our words and your thirsty soul laps them up. It’s refreshing and freeing because it is absolutely true. You are indeed worthy of love and affection and affirmation and all good things. You deserve a good life, now and in the future. You wake up in the morning and when you get out of bed, hope comes alive. Because where there is life, there is hope.

And you indeed have life. It may not be exactly what you want, but you have the power to change it. Starting with how you see yourself and how you see others. You are worth loving and so is that person at your work who really annoys you. The rude person who cuts you off in traffic is worth loving too, same with the family member who put you down at Christmas dinner.

When you know that you are valuable and truly, genuinely like yourself, that love spreads. I’m not talking about the loud self-confidence that shouts for attention and sounds secure. I mean the quiet confidence that whispers “I know who I am”. With that type of self-esteem, you disempower words of abuse over your life. You shoot your insecurities to the ground and you show that hateful voice in your head who’s boss.

If you can’t say with conviction that you like yourself because you’re doing something that you know isn’t right, then I encourage you to fix it. If you’ve hurt someone or made a mistake, apologise if possible and then let it go. Leave it in this year and make the decision to be someone that you can like, starting in 2013. You’re worthy of love regardless, but if your low self-esteem comes from a situation where you’ve done wrong, then maybe it’s time to face it!

And let me remind you, no matter what mistakes you have made in your life, your valuable is insurmountable. It cannot be touched or fathomed or measured.

I don’t know if 2012 was the year that your darkest secret was born, your biggest mistake was made or you were hurt more than ever. It also could have been your best year yet. Either way, let 2013 be the year that you make a purposeful decision to accept that you are worth loving. Join the #swlfamily and help change the world, starting with your own.