There’s a lot of New Year noise out there at the moment. Individuals are sharing their plans on social media, companies are doing their best to get you to sign up to their offers and the media is all about ‘new year, new you’. The New Year comparison can be hard to ignore. The upbeat messages can be overwhelming, especially if you’re feeling vulnerable, and it’s incredibly easy to feel confused and pulled in multiple directions.
Due to the nature of my work, I follow a lot of people in the health and wellness space and the amount of content coming my way in recent days has been huge. This is partly marketing teams doing their jobs and it’s great to see people feeling positive about 2026, but sheer volume of different messages and promises of life-changing results can be disorientating.
How comparison quietly creeps in
When you’re bombarded by all this material, comparison may not be your immediate thought. That’s because it tends to be more subtle and cumulative rather than an obvious state of mind.
Instead, comparison can show up under the guise of ‘motivation’ or ‘self-improvement’. At this time of year when there’s focus on what you may achieve in the next twelve months, this pressure can ramp up.
For starters, as I alluded to above there’s the New Year focus on fitness, diet and body ideals. The programmes being promoted and the gym memberships on offer typically showcase a need for change. There’s lots of emphasis on career productivity and ambition with slogans such as ‘find your dream job in 2026’, ‘achieve your career goals this year’. Perhaps comparison is creeping in around lifestyle markers too such as holidays, homes and routines and how you should create improvements. Or maybe, it’s all of these factors interwoven together.
When you’re bombarded by this ‘noise’ from all directions, it can create a sense of urgency to act yourself. There’s a kind of hectic energy that builds when you take in this type of material. You may feel inadequate for not having things mapped out, or sense you ‘should be doing more’ simply because other people appear to be.
I see how these types of reactions can create anxiety rather than clarity. When people are caught in comparison to others, I’ve noticed they can lose sight of what they want for themselves. They can get pulled away from their own values and beliefs.
What gets lost when we compare
When we compare ourselves to others, we lose trust in ourselves. For some of my clients, lack of self-esteem and perfectionism have meant comparison has become a default setting toward betterment. But rather than helping us move towards our goals, comparison can often create confusion. We can become disconnected from what we actually want when our heads are being turned by others. Over time, this can create a sense of ‘stuckness’ or feelings of never being enough.
If this resonates with you, something to reflect on may be:
If no one else was watching, what would I want this year to feel like?
Tuning back in to your inner voice
To counter the outer noise right now, it can be helpful to tune back in to our inner frequency. Knocking back the time you spend on social media this month or unsubscribing from intense mailers can be helpful. Instead of believing your motivation for the year ahead needs to come from others, can you ask yourself for encouragement?
It may seem unfamiliar to tune into your internal cues initially, but it can be grounding and it’s possible to find real wisdom there. Creating a little quiet time where you can reflect or do something that makes you feel good can help. It could be reading a chapter of your book, trying a new recipe or researching a place you’ve always wanted to visit.
Embracing your individuality can be beneficial. There’s no need for a new you. Instead of absorbing the external noise, connect back to what’s important to you instead.
Choose your own way to begin the year
There’s no right way to begin the year despite how much others try to convince us otherwise. You don’t need a detailed plan, a transformation, or a list of goals by January.
It’s fine to move slowly, to want something differently, or to still be figuring things out. The most important thing is that your choices come from you, not from comparison, urgency, or outside expectation.
By stepping away from comparison and tuning back into yourself, it becomes easier to make choices that feel aligned to your values rather than forced.
This year doesn’t need to be about becoming someone new. It can be about returning to yourself.
