December 9, 2025 • 9 mins
As the year comes to a close, the pressure to reinvent ourselves starts to rise. “New year, new me” culture tells us we must transform, overhaul our habits, set 20 resolutions, and show up in January as a completely new woman. But what if you don’t have to? In this Mid Week Tease episode, Adelle Onyango offers a soothing, truth-filled conversation about stepping into the new year gently, without burnout, shame, or the pressure to rebuild yourself from scratch. We explore:
Listen to more from the Legally Clueless Africa network:
- Why January reinvention culture creates unnecessary pressure
- How the self-improvement industry profits from women feeling “not enough”
- What gentler, more realistic growth models look like
- Why healing and change don’t follow calendar timelines
- How to honour the version of you that carried you through this year
- Soft, sustainable shifts you can embrace instead of drastic reinventions
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Midwick Te's with me adele Jangle, where
I share some random and not too random thoughts on things.
And in this episode, I want you to know that
you do not have to reinvent yourself in January. All right,
this episode is going to be like a really nice,
(00:20):
gentle exhale because as the year winds down, I know
that so many of us are moving through this kind
of like mix of exhaustion, pressure, reflection, hope, like so
many feelings all the time in their bigness, right, and
at the end of every year, like clockwork, January starts looming,
and there's this expectation that we must show up as
(00:42):
brand new women, so brand new bodies, brand new habits,
brand new lives. But I just want this episode to
give you permission, like real wholehearted permission, to not reinvent
yourself in January. Let's talk about it. Have you noticed
how reinvention culture just starts creeping in early December? Like
(01:05):
now everybody cuddainly has vision boards, these like resolutions. This
is the one morning routines that started for m and
all of these plans to like magically transform their lives
at the stroke of midnight, on the thirty first of December.
And then you're watching this and you what you're feeling
(01:27):
is tired. Maybe at most you're reflecting, maybe you're healing
from a tough year. Maybe you're celebrating winds you haven't
really fully processed. Maybe you're grieving something or someone or
a job that you lost this year. But through all
of this, you're feeling a bit behind or unprepared, or
(01:48):
like you should be becoming a new you overnight. Let
me tell you something, January is not a deadline. Imagine,
it's just a month. It's just a month like any other.
And then you you're not a project that needs to
be rebuilt from scratch every January. Okay, a lot of
(02:11):
this reinvention pressure is systemic, it is not personal. Right.
The self improvement industry thrives when you feel like you're
not enough because in those cracks they can sell you
what you need to be enough. Are we together? Mm hmm.
And then when you add the layer of social media
(02:33):
where we romanticize transformation and we package it like esthetics, right,
and we're constantly, even internally, remembering how we have been
conditioned to do better, be better, prove yourself don't slow down.
So all of that wrapped up in one. When January
(02:53):
comes around, it really feels like we're being summoned to
perform improvement. But I want you to remember that improvement
isn't performance. It's in a work, and in a work
doesn't obey calendars. Like your body is not saying, oh okay,
it's it's November, so let's not have any progress in
(03:15):
our healing work. And then when January comes, your insights
are not like, oh oh okay, it's January, it's time
for us to really step it up. That's not how
it works. And here's the truth that I really want
you to hold onto with both hands, both feet, and everything.
You do not need January to justify changing your life.
(03:36):
You don't need a new year to validate your growth,
and you definitely don't need to invent yourself so that
you can deserve rest, or joy, or love or success. Sometimes,
and this has been so true in my life, the
most transformative seasons start on a Wednesday in like March.
Actually mine was actually April April twenty twenty two. I'll
(04:05):
never get it. Or sometimes it's going to start on
a quiet Sunday in July, or in the middle of
a hot break or a breakthrough or a moment that
you didn't plan for. Right, we keep saying this, and
I can't reiterate this more. Growth is not linear, and
healing is not seasonal, and reinvention is not a requirement.
(04:26):
So if you walk into January exactly as you are today,
be it hopeful, tired, messy, figuring things out. Imagine you're
still whole and you're still enough. So let me offer
you a more softer, more humane way to move into
the new year. Number One, let your season guide you,
(04:48):
not the calendar. So like, really listen to yourself, check
where your mind is at, check where your body's at.
Sometimes your body wants rest and it'll happen to want
that rest in January. Just because you're giving your body
rest in January doesn't make you a failure. Let your
season guide you and not the calendar. Right. So again,
(05:13):
if it means that your body wants rest more than goals,
honor that. Number two, choose one gentle shift instead of
doing a full on personality makeover. One thing you've got
to remember is like your brain doesn't like major overhauls
all at once. You need to add changes slowly by slowly,
(05:34):
small small steps. Right, So maybe you could say I
want to have clearer boundaries. Maybe you could say I
want to stop being kinder to my body. Maybe it's
saying giving yourself permission to rest, like just a small
gentle shift instead of like a huge change that then
you find that you can't even sustain past that January itself. Right.
(05:57):
The other thing is let change be slow. I've found
that real growth is built from tiny consistent choices, right,
not resolutions that you wrote at two am on December thirty. First, please,
it's just like tiny consistent choices, And which is why
the previous point was choose one gentle shift, one nice
(06:19):
tiny shift, and then do that consistently. You're going to
see real growth from that, and then leave room for magic.
This one I'm really learning. Over the last couple of weeks.
I've really leaned in to be more curious about things,
more open to meeting new people, more open to wriggle
room in my even in my routine. And it has
(06:42):
led me to even meeting an incredible person just because
I was open enough to leave room for magic. And
magic came in, guys, Magic came in you don't have
to plan everything. Some of your biggest blessings going to
meet you unexpectedly. Trust me, I'm currently living through a
(07:05):
big blessing that I did not expect to like bump into,
but it came on a week that I shifted things
around and I wasn't following my routine, and then I
just happened to be at the right place at the
right time. Now, I want you to, as you listen
to this pause with me for a moment, think about
(07:29):
who you were this year. Think about what you survived,
think about what you learned, think about what you released,
think about what you protected. So before rushing to become
a new you, can you please just honor the woman
(07:51):
who carried you through this year. I think she deserves that.
I really think you deserve that. And as you moved
towards January, I want you to remember this. You're not
late to your life. You're not behind, and you're definitely
not unfinished. You are growing. You're growing quietly, you're growing steadily,
(08:13):
You're growing courageously at your own pace. And that pace
is enough. Now. If you resonated with this episode, do
share it with someone that you love, And if you
feel led to. In the common section, you can drop
one gentle intention or shift that you're carrying with you
(08:36):
into twenty twenty six. I really love that you and
I get to walk through the season together, and until
next week, please be kind to yourself. Thanks for listening
to The midwik TI's a Legally Clueless Africa production. Episodes
go out every Wednesday, and you can learn more about
us by going to legally Cluless Africa dot com.
Welcome to the Midwick Te's with me adele Jangle, where
I share some random and not too random thoughts on things.
And in this episode, I want you to know that
you do not have to reinvent yourself in January. All right,
this episode is going to be like a really nice,
(00:20):
gentle exhale because as the year winds down, I know
that so many of us are moving through this kind
of like mix of exhaustion, pressure, reflection, hope, like so
many feelings all the time in their bigness, right, and
at the end of every year, like clockwork, January starts looming,
and there's this expectation that we must show up as
(00:42):
brand new women, so brand new bodies, brand new habits,
brand new lives. But I just want this episode to
give you permission, like real wholehearted permission, to not reinvent
yourself in January. Let's talk about it. Have you noticed
how reinvention culture just starts creeping in early December? Like
(01:05):
now everybody cuddainly has vision boards, these like resolutions. This
is the one morning routines that started for m and
all of these plans to like magically transform their lives
at the stroke of midnight, on the thirty first of December.
And then you're watching this and you what you're feeling
(01:27):
is tired. Maybe at most you're reflecting, maybe you're healing
from a tough year. Maybe you're celebrating winds you haven't
really fully processed. Maybe you're grieving something or someone or
a job that you lost this year. But through all
of this, you're feeling a bit behind or unprepared, or
(01:48):
like you should be becoming a new you overnight. Let
me tell you something, January is not a deadline. Imagine,
it's just a month. It's just a month like any other.
And then you you're not a project that needs to
be rebuilt from scratch every January. Okay, a lot of
(02:11):
this reinvention pressure is systemic, it is not personal. Right.
The self improvement industry thrives when you feel like you're
not enough because in those cracks they can sell you
what you need to be enough. Are we together? Mm hmm.
And then when you add the layer of social media
(02:33):
where we romanticize transformation and we package it like esthetics, right,
and we're constantly, even internally, remembering how we have been
conditioned to do better, be better, prove yourself don't slow down.
So all of that wrapped up in one. When January
(02:53):
comes around, it really feels like we're being summoned to
perform improvement. But I want you to remember that improvement
isn't performance. It's in a work, and in a work
doesn't obey calendars. Like your body is not saying, oh okay,
it's it's November, so let's not have any progress in
(03:15):
our healing work. And then when January comes, your insights
are not like, oh oh okay, it's January, it's time
for us to really step it up. That's not how
it works. And here's the truth that I really want
you to hold onto with both hands, both feet, and everything.
You do not need January to justify changing your life.
(03:36):
You don't need a new year to validate your growth,
and you definitely don't need to invent yourself so that
you can deserve rest, or joy, or love or success. Sometimes,
and this has been so true in my life, the
most transformative seasons start on a Wednesday in like March.
Actually mine was actually April April twenty twenty two. I'll
(04:05):
never get it. Or sometimes it's going to start on
a quiet Sunday in July, or in the middle of
a hot break or a breakthrough or a moment that
you didn't plan for. Right, we keep saying this, and
I can't reiterate this more. Growth is not linear, and
healing is not seasonal, and reinvention is not a requirement.
(04:26):
So if you walk into January exactly as you are today,
be it hopeful, tired, messy, figuring things out. Imagine you're
still whole and you're still enough. So let me offer
you a more softer, more humane way to move into
the new year. Number One, let your season guide you,
(04:48):
not the calendar. So like, really listen to yourself, check
where your mind is at, check where your body's at.
Sometimes your body wants rest and it'll happen to want
that rest in January. Just because you're giving your body
rest in January doesn't make you a failure. Let your
season guide you and not the calendar. Right. So again,
(05:13):
if it means that your body wants rest more than goals,
honor that. Number two, choose one gentle shift instead of
doing a full on personality makeover. One thing you've got
to remember is like your brain doesn't like major overhauls
all at once. You need to add changes slowly by slowly,
(05:34):
small small steps. Right, So maybe you could say I
want to have clearer boundaries. Maybe you could say I
want to stop being kinder to my body. Maybe it's
saying giving yourself permission to rest, like just a small
gentle shift instead of like a huge change that then
you find that you can't even sustain past that January itself. Right.
(05:57):
The other thing is let change be slow. I've found
that real growth is built from tiny consistent choices, right,
not resolutions that you wrote at two am on December thirty. First, please,
it's just like tiny consistent choices, And which is why
the previous point was choose one gentle shift, one nice
(06:19):
tiny shift, and then do that consistently. You're going to
see real growth from that, and then leave room for magic.
This one I'm really learning. Over the last couple of weeks.
I've really leaned in to be more curious about things,
more open to meeting new people, more open to wriggle
room in my even in my routine. And it has
(06:42):
led me to even meeting an incredible person just because
I was open enough to leave room for magic. And
magic came in, guys, Magic came in you don't have
to plan everything. Some of your biggest blessings going to
meet you unexpectedly. Trust me, I'm currently living through a
(07:05):
big blessing that I did not expect to like bump into,
but it came on a week that I shifted things
around and I wasn't following my routine, and then I
just happened to be at the right place at the
right time. Now, I want you to, as you listen
to this pause with me for a moment, think about
(07:29):
who you were this year. Think about what you survived,
think about what you learned, think about what you released,
think about what you protected. So before rushing to become
a new you, can you please just honor the woman
(07:51):
who carried you through this year. I think she deserves that.
I really think you deserve that. And as you moved
towards January, I want you to remember this. You're not
late to your life. You're not behind, and you're definitely
not unfinished. You are growing. You're growing quietly, you're growing steadily,
(08:13):
You're growing courageously at your own pace. And that pace
is enough. Now. If you resonated with this episode, do
share it with someone that you love, And if you
feel led to. In the common section, you can drop
one gentle intention or shift that you're carrying with you
(08:36):
into twenty twenty six. I really love that you and
I get to walk through the season together, and until
next week, please be kind to yourself. Thanks for listening
to The midwik TI's a Legally Clueless Africa production. Episodes
go out every Wednesday, and you can learn more about
us by going to legally Cluless Africa dot com.
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