Well ladies and gentlemen, we’ve made it to day two of the new year. How is it going so far? Did you make any resolutions?
In true Jordan fashion, I didn’t set any resolutions until today because I like to procrastinate. In recent years, I’ve given up on setting goals that create a significant amount of additional work for me or will make me feel worse about myself in some way.
Goals are great. We should always have goals, and the new year is a wonderful time to re-evaluate what we want for ourselves and if our current or past behaviors are supporting our dreams. During this time of year, society pushes us to set goals based on our physical appearance under the false pretense that they’re encouraging us to “get healthy.” Really, we’re having ads about how inadequate we are shoved down our throats by marketers. Being healthy is important, and I always find myself setting goals about my physical appearance, not about my health.
This year, the only resolution I’m truly setting for myself is to do more of what makes me happy. I don’t even know exactly what that is, but isn’t that exciting! I’m typically not a brave person, but I’m wanting this year to be a year where I push myself out of my comfort zone and do more of what I want to do and not so much of what I think I’m supposed to do.
What makes you happy? What are the things that you do that always bring you peace? Is it exercise? Do you have a craft that always makes you feel calm? Is there something you’ve always wanted to try but didn’t think you’d be successful or weren’t sure you could pull it off?
Even if 2020 brought you some of the happiest moments of your life, such as a marriage, a child, exciting new things, it also brought you stress, anxiety, grief and fear. Having basically 10 whole months of uncertainty does a lot to a person’s mental health. So instead of focusing on changing our imperfections in 2021, let’s change that to focusing on improving our strengths. Let the light in, find the things that bring you the most joy and do them more often.
Okay, so I’ve named my intentions for the new year, now what? First, write them down somewhere you can revisit them often. When we see them frequently, it is just a reminder of what you want for yourself. When we don’t write them down or we do but it gets hidden away somewhere, we can easily get busy with our normal routines and forget about the things we promised we’d make more time for.
Second, goals can be adjusted. If you really thought something was going to be important to you and then you discover that it makes you feel inadequate or it just isn’t enjoyable, you can change that goal.
Third, find your people to share it with. Having people around you to hold you accountable for your goals is important. I am always seeing a meme going around on social media about keeping your goals to yourself so when you’re successful it surprises people. The concept is to keep the naysayers out, but if you have people questioning your goals I’d suggest taking a closer look at your inner circle. It’s healthy to have a core group of people you’re sharing your dreams with. They can help you establish boundaries and routines to be sure you see success in the areas you want to see the most change.
We don’t know what the future looks like. There are so many things happening in the world around us that are out of our control. One thing we can control is where we put our energy. Make sure in this new year, you’re putting more energy into the things that bring you joy. One thing I know I plan on focusing on in this new year is to do good things.
Jo is a Mess 