Every year, December 31st rolls around, and I find myself at a New Years’ Eve party. Every year the same routine plays out: people blowing on streamers and kazoos, wearing limited clothing (considering it’s the dead of winter), sporting the new year’s number as glasses, and asking the question “so, what are your New Year’s Resolutions?”.
The most common answers I hear are along the lines of “to lose weight”, “to get in shape”, something along the lines of becoming rich, or any other outlandish goals. A day into the New Year and people are already setting themselves up for failure. Of course, you have the odd exception who succeeds due to dedication and discipline , but I’m talking about the rest of us.
When people set out a New Year’s resolution for themselves, they have a tendency to choose a goal that they constantly have on their backburner, something that the little voice in their head constantly reminds them about. They seem to believe that by putting it on this pedestal and giving it this official title of “New Year’s Resolution”, it will make it substantially easier to achieve. In other words, people seem to confuse the term resolution for a magic wish. Because of this, so many resolutions get dropped within the first few weeks of the year when people realize they’re not easily attainable. By no means am I trying to discourage this longtime tradition, but instead I am encouraging individuals to think more realistically.
This year when the infamous question was asked, I decided to put more thought into my answer. Instead of those big goals, I opted for minimal changes I could effortlessly incorporate into my everyday life. For example, I decided to live life more intentionally overall. In other words, I decided to take life one day at a time. Put in the extra effort on homework, stop and appreciate the little things, make conscious decisions, etc. Essentially anything that makes you remember how precious life really is. The other goal I had was to give myself a mini vacation every day. What this means is to do something small every day that brings me joy, whether it be getting Starbucks , cuddling with my dog, putting on my favorite fuzzy socks, going for a walk, and anything else that boosts my serotonin levels.
After testing out this change of mindset throughout this first week of 2023, it has proven to be an effortless transition. By this time in previous years, I had already dropped my resolutions. However, this one has proven to be very easy to keep up and very easy to pick back up when it drops off. When keeping in mind that progress isn’t linear, being able to easily get yourself back into these habits is essential. Overall, at the end of the day, your resolutions are yours to make, but trust me when I say starting the year off with small accomplishments every day is just as rewarding as it sounds. And if you don’t believe me, there’s only one way to find out ;)