As the first month of the new year comes to an end, instead of making a mockery of the resolutions made for the year, why not look at the new year in a new light? With so much growth, experience, and expertise, resolutions should be the furthest thing from your mind as you begin 2022. Being perfect is overrated — all resolutions do is deprive individuals of living life to the fullest. This is not to say that healthier habits and new ideas shouldn’t be a part of your life, but there is no need to put pressure on yourself to become a whole new person when the new year starts.
Instead of making unrealistic and unsatisfying goals, make a list of all the goals that you purposefully and unintentionally achieved within the last year. This not only helps to recap the year in a positive manner but also helps to consciously acknowledge the achievements that you had in the previous year. Understanding how you grew is going to promote your growth, no matter the size of the accomplishment. You must start somewhere and often writing down and visualizing what you’ve already done and learned makes tackling new objectives that much easier.
For the goal-setters who have yet to begin a new year without creating a set plan, this new way of thinking may not be your ideal approach. Instead of making resolutions though, try setting goals based on the resolutions from the previous year. Take the goals that you accomplished last year and see how you can expand upon them. Understanding that there was a learning experience in every single one of your goals, whether they were achieved or not, will give you a more positive outlook on New Year’s resolutions and other goals you make along the way. Rather than setting the same goal that wasn’t achieved in the past, set a goal to help understand why that goal wasn’t achieved. Understanding yourself helps to understand your goals, and in turn accomplish them.
A new year is a new start — learning more about yourself will make it easier to understand everything else. Life will always throw unplanned battles your way, causing shifts in mood, energy, or motivation. This is completely normal, however, setting growth goals prevents individuals from feeling poorly about “giving up” or losing sight of a fixed goal. Creating an ever-changing, happy, and optimistic mind is the best goal to make in 2022.