Written in Partnership With Joanna A
Photo of Dr. Ryan Neinstein from his Instagram account, with permission
With 2023 just around the corner, it is now time to start thinking about your new year’s resolutions. Every New Year’s Eve plenty of people write down the healthy habits they want to add to their daily routine to then forget about them in a matter of days. This is because we often tend to focus on too many changes instead of concentrating on just a few helpful resolutions. According to Dr. Ryan Neinstein, founder of the Neinstein Plastic Surgery, a clinic located in Manhattan, these are the only five tips you need to turn 2023 into the best year of your life!
1. Start Now
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” Is there something you’ve been procrastinating on for ages? Maybe you’ve been waiting for years to learn a new language, pick up a new healthy habit, or finally book that trip you’ve been dreaming of.
What causes this type of procrastination is often the fear of not having enough time to dedicate yourself to these activities. The truth is that only by doing the first step will you finally find the time. “Leaning into whatever friction is holding you back by actually doing something and doing it consistently, will have ripple effects in your life,” said Dr. Neinstein.
2. Read books and learn from them
Literature has the unique power of traveling across cultures and time to give us the most important insights into the history of humanity. Some of the writings of the first Western philosophers are still incredibly powerful to this day. For instance, roughly two thousand years ago, the famous philosopher Seneca claimed that our fears are often caused by what is out of our control and famously said: “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality”. Reading novels and books will give you easy access to years of knowledge that can help you deal with your daily struggles.
3. Get advice from people you admire
Even though books can be a useful source of information, relying solely on these won’t get you far. To maximize your self-development and growth you need to find a role model or mentor. Identify the people you respect and admire the most, whether from a professional or personal perspective, and prioritize the time spent with them. “Finding a mentor you can be completely open, honest, authentic, and vulnerable with will help you go on a straight line to realistic and specific goals,” said Dr. Neinstein. Remember that this relationship cannot only be one-sided, so be ready to give just as much as you receive.
4. Strengthen the bond with your partner
Having deep intimate connections has tons of benefits for your overall well-being. Sharing your life with a partner who loves you and respects you has been correlated with a high chance of success regardless of the field you’re in. “I know of many successful people who have put off relationships and family in search of glory in their perspective fields, but I can personally say the best thing to ever happen to me as a surgeon was to become a husband and father,” said Dr. Neinstein. According to him, becoming a father and husband helped him become more empathetic towards other people, boosting his professional and personal growth.
5. Stop thinking the world is fair and it owes you something
It’s easy to always play the victim and blame everyone but yourself for your failures. But guess what? This won’t take you far in life. Once you realize that nobody owes you anything and that the world is inherently unfair, your life will immediately simplify. In his speech titled ‘Citizenship in a Republic’, Theodore Roosevelt famously said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” According to Dr. Neinstein, the power of this speech resides in the recognition that what matters in life is the effort and courage we put into doing things rather than other people’s judgements. “Doing the work is what matters, not the recognition or criticism,” said Dr. Neinstein.
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