Every year you come up with a new resolution and every year you find a way to fail. Yeah, well, I get it. Try these realistic New Year resolutions instead so you can feel like you’ve actually achieved something.
New Year Resolutions have a really bad rap and for good reason.
80% of people who make resolutions fail to succeed in acquiring their goals.
Some make unrealistically lofty goals and some make goals they really don’t care about; they make them for the heck of it with no plan to set their resolutions in motion.
And while that’s all well and good it feeds into the idea that resolutions aren’t worth making. Instead, surround yourself with realistic goals for the next few months to jump-start larger goals.
Here are a few of my ideas.
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Table of Adventures
A Few Things to Stop Doing
1 // Stop lying to yourself about making lifestyle changes.
There’s nothing worse than lying to yourself about doing something and then getting that sense of disappointment when you realize, “welp – I did it again.” If you know deep down inside that the change seems insurmountable, or it’s not something you necessarily care about changing, don’t do it.
2 // Don’t come up with more than you can handle.
Unless you’re some kind of machine – be realistic in the number of resolutions you think you can undertake. Examine your schedule, examine your current lifestyle, and see if the resolutions you currently have can handle it, and if not, make changes to necessitate the resolution coming true.
3 // Be prepared to fail.
I think it’s important to fail, it’s a building block to success. But you also need to be prepared to succeed. If you fail once, try again until you finish. You’ll feel great once you do.
Your list may have a dozen things you’re going to do, or it could be one. Understand that drastic changes mean harder falls. So, be prepared to fail, but get back up and keep going until you nail your resolution.
4 // Don’t wait until the New Year to begin.
Of course, if you made the resolutions on December 31st, that’s one thing, but if you’ve come up with them weeks in advance why not just start now?
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” Start as early as possible so that as you go into the next year you’ll feel the changes happening immediately.
5 // Don’t hit the ground running hard.
Whatever your resolution, start slow. Work up to the most difficult part of the resolution as the year progresses.
In order to keep point 3 at bay, starting slow gives you time to iron out problems along the way without that feeling of wanting to quit.
Ideas for New Year Resolutions
Before you start coming up with grandiose ideas for the new year, take some time to understand how to make your resolutions stick. The tips above are really great but if you need a better grasp, you can check out: How to Make the Best New Year’s Resolutions.
- Socialize more.
This can be a challenge for a lot of people who have introversion running through their veins.
However, sometimes socializing more could mean attending a knitting hour or a book club. Or … a debate club, a theater club, or a comedy show. Write a shortlist of places that require you to be a little bit more social and go from there.
- Go on some adventures.
Doesn’t have to be travel (although if you wanted to then do that – you can do that alone or with someone else), but even still it doesn’t have to be ostentatious.
It can be an adventure to a new grocery store or to a new food spot. Maybe an adventure in learning about the people around you. It doesn’t have to be crazy at all.
- Build something for yourself.
I built lemonade + adventure. I didn’t make it a resolution (see point 1 above), but I ended up building and growing something that was mine.
You too can try the same thing by starting a business, maybe a model train set, or even a birdhouse.
- Eliminate fast fashion from any new clothing buys.
Fast fashion is clothing made cheaply in bulk according to the trends of the day and meant to be thrown away after a few wears. Think Fashion Nova, Zara, American Eagle, and other large mass retailers.
By eliminating fast fashion in your own closet you’re helping the environmental impact clothes can have in your own backyard.
You may end up spending more money, but overall the money spent will most likely be on quality items meant to last. You’ll probably slow down in the purchases you make over time as you take the time to examine what is most important to you.
This particular resolution would be perfect for capsule wardrobes as your clothes will last longer and you’ll be contributing to less waste over time.
- When vacationing, travel slowly.
For those who don’t know what I mean: slow travel is the act of traveling more mindfully. It’s the opposite of “checklist travel” which aims to see as much as you can wherever you go.
If you’re looking for some ideas on what to do, Slow Travel Blog is a perfect resource for sustainable travel wherever your heart desires you to be.
- Buy your groceries locally.
If you are so lucky to live in a place that buying produce locally is a thing – why not make it a resolution? By purchasing locally, you support small businesses and your community.
Check out those farmer’s markets and get to know the local merchants in your area. You may befriend one or two in the process.
- Treat people with more kindness and respect.
It seems like this is on the way out. I recently read a story about a woman in Philadephia who was badly hurt and people didn’t intervene to help her – they recorded it instead.
Let’s not be those people. Showing kindness isn’t hard, showing others respect isn’t hard – standing up for others shouldn’t be difficult. Be a little kinder going into the new year and work on it every single day.
Yes, it will be hard, yes you may feel like some people don’t deserve it, but do it anyway.
- Stop comparing your body to others.
It’s one thing to look at someone as inspiration for the body that you’re working towards, but it should never be belittling at the end of the day.
Appreciate the body that you have, the body that is still pumping blood to all parts of you, and stop letting someone else’s version trump the version you have. As your body changes, celebrate the progress you have made and celebrate the body you are in.
One way to stop the comparison game is to look in the mirror every day and say one genuinely nice thing about yourself.
It can be your gorgeously colored eyes, it can be how beautiful and shiny your hair is, anything to keep you focused on the beauty you, and only you, get to have.
- Make your own meals.
Getting take out is a huge temptation (one of which I totally get). However, by making your own meals you’re learning more about yourself.
Are you patient with certain meals? Did a particular meal stress you out? Would you try to make something better than you did the first time?
Plus, if you’re in the same boat as me (losing weight) you can control everything that goes into your food and that’s really important.
- Get your driver’s license.
If Lady Gaga could do it at 30, you can do it, too.
- Read more.
Pick a number and stick to it. Make sure it’s something you can actually do, too. If you surpass your list, congratulations, you get to read even more books. ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Audiobooks do count by the way. The best way to read is while on a road trip and letting the book roll!
- Learn a new skill (or hobby).
And no, I don’t mean something boring – choose something that exhilarates and excites you.
Do a preliminary search for what it will take to learn the skill you have chosen and make a shortlist of the items you’ll need and a rough estimate of the amount of money you’ll have to spend.
And then start.
Don’t wait. Just get into it. Remember to start small, practice often, and get to know others who are doing the same as you and learn from them, too.
- Drop unreliable friends and make new ones.
You really need to prioritize yourself when it comes to the people you allow to be your friends. They’re your second family and they should respect you by loving you, telling you how it is, and being reliable.
If you’re constantly doing those things with your friends and they’re not reciprocating by finding excuses not to do it every single time it’s time to find new friends.
That may be hard (and it will take time) but weed out those people in your life who take advantage of your kindness for their personal gain.
- Cut back on drinking.
Each of us has a vice. My vice is sugar. I love Sour Patch Kids and find euphoria in indulging in it every chance I get. However, Diabetes runs in my family and the way in which I gained weight very quickly at the beginning of the Pandemic means I need to chill.
Whether you’re trying to cut back on drinking, candy, or anything bad for your health, your mind, or your soul, maybe this is the year that you slowly wean yourself off of it. It may be worth it at the end of the year to see the progress you have made once you fully commit to it.
- Replace saying “sorry” with “thanks.”
This sounds strange, so let me give you an example.
You walked into a meeting late and while yes, you may be sorry, instead of saying, “Sorry I’m late!” say “Thanks for waiting.” Your self-respect and your self-confidence will sky-rocket as you stop saying sorry for every little thing.
If you really feel like a sorry is merited, then say it, but don’t say it all the time.
- Learn to reduce and manage your stress better.
Stress is the body’s management system to something positive or negative that has happened to us. It can happen during anything from a divorce to losing a loved one to being behind on housing payments.
Identifying, and understanding, our stress triggers can help us to reduce and manage the stress we experience to live a fulfilling life.
(If you are unable to identify your stressors seeing a licensed behavioral therapist would be the best step for you to take.)
Some ways to do this are by getting adequate sleep, evaluating your values and sticking by them, being assertive (like saying “no”), and even meditation. There are plenty of other ways, but this is just a taste.
However, if you need more information you can check out this article on trying the 4 A’s.
- Try one new thing monthly.
I keep saying that I want to try a new recipe weekly, but because I never wrote it down I haven’t accomplished that particular goal at all.
Trying a new recipe is a great thing to try monthly, maybe even sky diving could be part of that. But trying new things, especially if they’re completely out of your comfort zone, once a month gives you 12 new, exciting things to talk about.
And maybe one of those may end up being something you do (or make) more often.
- Complain less.
This coincides with point 16 easily. By minimizing your complaining your stress levels decrease alongside it.
By putting gratitude to the forefront of your mind you are able to have better overall satisfaction in life which can be the recipe for success in so many things.
And if complaining less doesn’t work with certain things try changing your circumstances if you can in order to experience more happiness.
- Pay someone a compliment every day.
Let your compliment be genuine and kind.
It’s a great way to practice kindness, empathy, and compassion.
- Detox from social media.
There is an abundance of reasons why you should detox from social media. So many in fact that I guest posted on how to detox from it all.
It’s great if you feel like getting likes have become the bane of your existence or you’re feeling unworthy of attention because you deemed someone to be better looking than you. It could be that your envy has risen and your anxiety has, too.
Detoxing is a great way to give your brain, self-confidence, and self-esteem the mental break it needs. We weren’t meant to look at screens all day and feel like we weren’t good enough.
Take the next year to love yourself again and seldom use social media while you’re at it.
- Start taking your vitamins daily.
As we get older our bodies start losing their shine.
This is especially true if you’re not exercising and eating well (and even if you are you may not be taking in enough).
By taking in multivitamins and other kinds meant for you, your body can begin to run more efficiently. Look for natural supplements that get straight to the root of the problem and if you’re not really into wanting to do all that research taking some regular multivitamins for your age is also appropriate.
I personally started using collagen and cranberry vitamins for skin elasticity and vaginal health, respectively. Again, I’m getting older so taking care of those things is very important for me to continue looking and feeling my best.
- Implement more self-care into your regimen.
You are not meant to work yourself to death. You’re just not.
In Anthropology I learned about a set of people who were studied and thought to be “lazy.” They lounged around for most of the day, chatting, laughing, sleeping, and did menial work in the way of collecting food.
They worked one hour a day to provide food and shelter for their families and the other 23 hours were meant to enjoy. And they disliked that one hour. However, they did as much work in that time that most people did in eight.
What I’m trying to say is that you deserve to relax. Sure, you may not be able to work for one hour but give yourself one hour to work on yourself. It’s the least you can do.
- Write a list of 12 things you want to achieve for every month in the year.
Sometimes it can feel overwhelming trying to get all of the resolutions you want completing, especially when you see a large list in front of you.
Break it up.
Take it month by month and go from there. January can be: “Talk to a stranger every day” while June could be: “Do something in the water today, like swimming, going to the beach, or to the lake.”
It will help keep the year interesting and refreshing anyway.
- Minimize your fixed expenses.
If you’re paying for things monthly try to minimize those expenses to something fixed instead.
Instead of paying $50 on contact lenses monthly why not just buy a pair of glasses outright for $100 and save $500?
Here’s a better example: you’re a coffee drinker and love going to Starbucks every day for a small cup of regular coffee. That’s $675.25 yearly (based on $1.85). Buy a Keurig instead for $40 and top up on k-cups throughout the year (roughly $19 monthly). That’s a $400 savings right there.
I love the sound of that!
- Don’t make any resolutions.
This is honestly a stance I took going into 2020 and 2021. It was the nicest thing I did for myself those two years. While I won’t be doing the same going into 2022 it actually was a great reset for me as I was fully able to allow myself to experience the entire world of possibilities afforded to me at the time.
I mean, hey, I started a blog and kept it going. I’d say that’s pretty impressive.
The other 24 resolutions are great, don’t get me wrong, but this resolution of making none is great for one of two reasons: 1) you’re already in the middle of something great for yourself and life is going the way you intended it to go and 2) you’re OK with not making any.
And that’s totally OK.
Related New Years Articles:
How to Make the Best New Year’s Resolutions in 2022
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