On January 1st, I naively filled my journal with a plethora of resolutions for 2019 that I then proceeded to break within the first few weeks. With a new year comes new, high expectations and goals for ourselves – which is great – until you realize how difficult it is to try to make major changes and improvements overnight. At first I was frustrated and felt that my hopes for an amazing year were shattered because I had already started to fall back into the same habits of the previous year.
But then I realized that even though New Year’s Resolutions can sometimes be great and lead us to self-improvement and growth, they can also press unreasonable pressure on us and make us feel bad when we they are too difficult to keep up. This year, instead of resolutions, I am focusing on doing something inspired by a health and wellness Instagram account that is called @LeefromAmercia. On the first day of each month, she posts a picture of her list of monthly “intentions”, which consists of different things she wants to do/focus on during that month. But instead of putting pressure, she encourages her followers to just take these intentions as suggestions and guides for how you will live your month. For example, on her post for last December, some of her intentions included: “stop multitasking” and “see a classical music artist perform.” She focuses on smaller, more manageable goals rather than major projects about completely change areas of your life.
Monthly intentions are much easier to keep than New Years Resolutions because they are more adaptable and go along with your current moods, interests, and goals. You can also make the goals more achievable, something that you can track within a month and stay more on top of in 30 days versus 365. For example, instead of a new years resolution that states “get in the best shape of my life,” I would have specific goals for each month, like “focus on eating more fruits and vegetables”. These smaller goals can contribute into big, life changing movements that will help you achieve your best self!
If you are like me and chose to set too many difficult resolutions, try instead writing small, achievable goals for shorter amounts of time that can also contribute to your awesome year.