The ‘New Year, New Me’ frenzy sure seems to have come to a close at this point in the month, with people already flaking out on their resolutions left, right and center. The thrill of 2019’s newness and optimism has definitely died down and we are all back to resorting to the good ol’ New Year’s memes to make yourselves feel better. (Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about!)
But hey! No judgments here. Resolutions are hard. And the pressure of having to start right as the clock strikes 12 on the day of an overhyped arbitrary astronomical event is paramount, not to mention daunting. As if it is somehow normal to expect people to up and change something drastic in their lives one random day. But don’t worry, I’ve got your back. It’s not too late to make some changes and make 2019 a fabulous and rewarding year for you. So here are 6 low-effort, high-impact resolutions you can still initiate to make 2019 the best year of your life!
1. Say two words of gratitude every day.
If you think about it, a year is just an amalgamation of days. So if you start and end every day of a year right, you are essentially bettering the overall quality of a year. Instead of setting bigger goals that target yearly progress, when you wake up everyday say something you are grateful for, preferably out loud, and repeat the process as your head hits the pillow at night. You can even think it, write it down in a journal, text it to someone, hell, text it to yourself… Instagram it, send it as your streaks snap… what have you. But starting off and ending the day with a recollection of how lucky you are to be alive, and just tipping your metaphorical hat to the universe for all the GOOD things in your life is a great way to motivate you to be humble, inspired, and driven in the morning, and rested and happy and content in the nighttime. 2. If you can walk it… Walk it.
If you can take a flight of stairs, or walk the 5 blocks instead of ubering, become a weekend dog-walker, take your dates on a hike, have your meetings in a park… DO IT! Walking is honestly an underrated form of exercise, and that’s saying a lot since it’s already pretty highly rated. Walking not only has physical benefits, but being outside, getting some fresh air, seeing the world exist outside of the confines of a building can help clear your head, put your problems into perspective and you already know that kind of positive affirmation you get when your FitBit buzzes with excitement as you cross a certain number of steps everyday. In fact, some of the world’s greatest CEO’s like, and even prefer, to conduct even the most high-stakes of business meetings on foot. Just saying, if it works for Sundar Pichai, I’m sure it can do wonders for us teenagers too!
3. Make a bucket list.
Most people dedicate their New Year’s resolutions towards checking things off a bucket list, but an equally important step is to actually create that plan. It can be places you want to go, things you want to do, books you want to read… whatever! But 2019 can just as well be your year of organization and goal-setting. Identifying what it is you want from the next decade, or two decades or even the remainder of your lifetime is a great practice to lay the mental groundwork for success. Perhaps take some time to even incorporate professional and mental-health related goals into your bucket list so that you can start working towards those as well!
4. Put self-care in your schedule. Speaking of mental-health related goals, put taking care of yourself into your to-do list. Google Cal will appreciate it, I promise. There are a couple of benefits to pre-planning your “me-time.”
1) It makes it more important in your brain, thus allowing you to follow-up and do more of it as your life goes on. 2) Scheduling things makes it statistically more likely that you will get them done. 3) Instead of feeling guilty that you have “wasted time” or “indulged,” crossing it off your agenda will actually make you feel more accomplished about spending quality time on yourself.
5. Single-task at least once a day. In this day and age of rapidly exploding technology and human population, we don’t even realize how much of the day we spend multi-tasking. We are working on our laptops, while listening to music, while eating dinner, while thinking about what happened at work last night, while debating how to handle a conversation tomorrow. Hardly anything we do, be it eating, thinking, working or simply “chilling,” happens all by itself. Don’t get me wrong! Being able to multi-task with ease and efficiency is one of the greater strengths of our generation. Yet admittedly, it can tend to clutter up the mental space. That is why taking the time everyday to clear the head and provide 100% focus (or like a solid 97) to purely one task is crucial. It can heighten your senses, clean out the white noise and enhance the output of your labors.
6. Say yes to things you wouldn’t normally do.
This one is daunting, and yes it does seem like more of a yearlong, high-effort kind of goal, but I’d argue that it depends on how you approach it. Instead of saying yes to every radical opportunity that comes your way, set smaller, incremental goals. The best way to do this is possibly by setting a quota. Every week try saying yes to ONE thing that you wouldn’t normally do and by the end of the year you will have at least 52 amazing (or possibly not so great, but definitely funny) stories to tell!
sources:
https://jokideo.com/lets-all-take-a-moment-and-be-thankful-that-spiders-… https://imgflip.com/i/9u6uy https://makeameme.org/meme/bucket-list-59dac5 https://in.pinterest.com/pin/393431717431203153/?lp=true https://medium.com/@sbberk11/its-possible-to-multi-manage-not-multi-task-9e992fd2d2df