My Not-So New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year! It’s been a minute since I’ve written anything and I finally find myself back in the flow. I hope you found a way to make the holiday season special despite the pandemic, but even more so I hope you found an appropriate way to send 2020 packing!
As we entered 2021, I decided to take a new approach to my usual goal-setting and resolution-making routine. In the past I’ve written down the small and big goals that I want to accomplish in all areas of my life and then done my best to revisit the list and remind myself periodically what it is I’m working towards. Last year’s list included things like having more date nights, doing full push-ups, detoxing from social media/technology more often, and journaling regularly. Despite a global pandemic I can say that I made progress in each area, with some minor adjustments along the way and lots of ebb and flow between being deeply committed and completely indifferent. But that was 2020. Which brings us to the new year.
You may have seen the meme going around in December that read: “Before I agree to 2021, I want to see the effing terms & conditions.” It made me laugh, but it also reminded me of an anti-new-years-resolution strategy I heard from Jamie Scrimgeour. On an old episode of her podcast, The Kick-Ass Stepmom Podcast, she shares the concept of easing into the year. For Jamie, easing into January means using the month to get organized, set the foundation for the year, journal, relax, and ask yourself what feels good and what you want to accomplish. January is hard enough as it is, coming down from the holiday high, shocking your body and system back into a diet that is not exclusively cheese and alcohol, going back to work or school or just the routine as you know it. I decided after surviving the roller coaster that was 2020, I definitely liked this idea of easing into 2021.
So here we are, at the end of January, and I’ve spent this month organizing and purging things I no longer need, journaling and writing to myself, meditating (a practice I developed thanks to Badass Habits by Jen Sincero), reading, working out, and getting back to cooking nourishing meals for myself and my family. As I got into the groove of 2021 and thought about how I wanted to feel and what I wanted to achieve, one word kept coming to mind: intention. Commitment to carrying out an action, planning, forethought, saying yes to projects and activities because they align with what I want, having relationships that add meaning to my life, saying no to things that no longer serve me, living a life of purpose. Intention. In all areas of my life, I want to live intentionally.
So instead of writing down my list of goals for 2021, I decided to write down the things I intend to do, the books I intend on reading, the routines I intend on following. Now that January is coming to a close, I feel like I’ve got the ball rolling and can start picking up speed from here. I know that no matter where this year takes me, my family, or the community at large, I have a blueprint for success and I intend on using it.