Who Do You Want To Be This Year?

"How I Met Your Mother" - Photo Courtesy of CBS

I was watching an episode of “How I Met Your Mother” the other day, and the story line for the episode was about each individual cast member’s doppelganger. There was someone in New York City that looked like each of the characters but had a completely different persona. There was Mexican Wrestler Ted, Stripper Lilly, Cab Driver Barney, and so on. They are looking for the doppelgangers through the entire series and it’s a fun story line added into the show. But at the end of the epsiode, as Ted comforts Robin about a recent breakup, he says:

“We’ve all been searching for the five doppelgangers, right? Well eventually, over time, we all become our own doppelgangers. These completely different people who just happen to look like us.”

For some reason, when I heard that statement, it hit me like a brick in the face. Whenever we grow up – we become completely different people. There’s always a new beginning or new opportunity staring us straight in the face. And it’s the choice to take that new beginning and run with it or leave it on the table and walk away the same person we were.

But then again, there are things that need to be left behind with the “old version” of yourself. The Diet Coke habit, that job you hated, that friend that secretly hated you, the 20 pounds you’ve been trying to lose. Once those things are gone, you emerge a different person with different goals and feelings and a different purpose.

I’m challenged to deal with purpose in my life right now. Being a recent grad isn’t a walk in the park. On one hand it’s encouraging to know that I have my whole life in front of me to decide what I want to do, but on the other hand it’s eat-an-entire-chocolate-bar stressful to actually make that choice.

I have problems choosing a nail polish – and I change it once a week! How in the world am I going to choose something that is supposed to last my entire life?

When time marks itself in such a defined way, it’s hard not to be nostalgic and reflective. Long after the ball had dropped and the champagne had been poured I found myself thinking about the things that have happened to me in the past year. The changes that came into my life. The person that I was. My doppelganger. (She was a waitress who loved saturated fats and a strong vodka gimlet).

But I’m not that girl anymore. I’m just someone who looks kinda like her.

Are you looking a doppelganger in the mirror? Is she the person you want to be? What changes do you want to bring this year? What kind of person do you want to be?

It’s the perfect time to find out.

Happy 2012,
Mal xoxo