Another year has almost come and gone and it’s time to look forward to the next year ahead. A whole 365 days to crush your goals on that bucket list.
In the past I always gave myself these extravagant goals that would be time consuming and quite frankly, overwhelming.
I find that sometimes people look at New Year’s as this time where they have to set goals right away and do them and if they don’t, they feel like a failure.
For me, I now look at the New Year as a blank page, a fresh slate of to dos with no hard deadline. For example, this past year I wrote down in my notebook five things I wanted to do or accomplish.
That could be anything. One was to travel to Ontario to see my family. Sounds like it would be a no brainer right? Well, life can be busy and schedules don’t always line up like we want them to; but, I made it a priority as I hadn’t seen my family in two years!
It was definitely time, and we did it. Another goal was to work out at least three times a week. I used to be one of those people that said things like, ‘let’s lose this many pounds’ or ‘junk food once a month,’ but the thing is, that wasn’t attainable for me.
Yes, I may have lost those pounds and whatnot, but I find New Year’s resolutions put unnecessary pressure on ourselves sometimes, because what if we don’t lose the weight or what if we aren’t in a position to do something we set out to do? Now I set realistic things for myself like working out a few times a week.
New Year’s resolutions are fun, but I love looking at the New Year now as a personal wish list.
If you look at it from the perspective of, ‘these are the things I want to do and accomplish this year, but if I don’t do them all, that’s okay’ things are far less stressful and it takes the pressure off.
Write a list down of five things you want to do, like a bucket list, and do at least two of them. You will feel great knowing you did something for yourself. It’s important to take time to do the things we love and want to do.
For my list last year, I set out my wishes and the wishes I wanted to do with my family, and it was so cool to look back on that list and see what we did.
I find with each passing year that goes by, it’s so important to live in the moment as life just goes by so fast. Ever since I’ve had kids I always tell people, ‘the days can be long, but the years are short.’
So, if there is something you’ve wanted to do for a while, even if it’s a simple thing, go out there and make it happen!
I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year.