December 27, 2017

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS 2018

New Year, New Me? More like New Year, Improved Me!

It’s the same thing every year. A new year arrives and we promise ourself we’re going to be better. This year, I’ll stop eating so many carbs. I’ll quit drinking every weekend. I’ll stop procrastinating on X project. While you probably start out strong for the first few weeks, (or months if you have more will power than the better of us) every year without fail, those resolutions and complete “life changes” we promised ourselves start to slow down until we almost forget we ever made them.

Why does this happen? Because we make these resolutions half-heartedly without actually wanting to make the changes. We just make them because we know that we could doing better than we are currently, so we think, “why not call it a resolution and attempt to hit the goal?”. We aim so high so quick, that there’s just no way we can keep up with them (cough cough *I’ll go to the gym EVERYDAY*). And lastly, sometimes because we just don’t have the time or the money to continue with them.

This year, I came up with a few resolutions that I want to implement into my daily life to improve upon myself. I want to share the resolutions I came up with for 2018, and share the steps I took to come up with them so that you too can set some achievable resolutions and start the year off right!

My resolutions for 2018?

Drink more water
Go to the gym more often
Be more patient

Steps to make them!

Set plans not goals. Goals are like dreams, and plans are action. Set your resolutions reasonably so that you can, and will want to achieve them!
- 1. Drink more water, 2. Go to the gym more often, and 3. Be more patient are not entirely specific. This because it makes it easier to be able to alter your plans, depending on the certain circumstances you face throughout the year. I know that there will be weeks where I won’t be able to go to the gym everyday, so making my resolution to go more often will keep me motivated and not feeling like I fail when I can’t make it every single day!
Make them positive. Instead of quitting your negative habits, why not add some positive habits? Unless your plan is something as radical as quitting smoking, make your resolutions enhance your life instead of depriving you of the things you want.
- Instead of “cutting back coffee”, I want to 1. Drink more water. I know that I’m still going to drink a cup of coffee almost every day, but by changing my mindset into drinking more water, I’ll hopefully choose to drink water over coffee to ensure that I’m keeping up with my plan! It’s also easier to add something (water) to my lifestyle rather than take it away (coffee).
Ensure you have the time and money to make it happen. Be sure to not set a resolution that you don’t have the time or dollars to commit to. While you might have the money and determination to take a yoga class 4 nights a week, remember everything has a cost to it, and your resolution may be feasible physically but not financially.
- In January, I’ll be starting a full time job for 4 months, and my office has a gym within it! With this, I know I’ll have access to it before and after work, and through my lunch hour. I know that this gives me with plenty of possible times to go to the gym, and I know it’s not a large expenditure I’ll have to budget for.
Start planning! A goal is nothing without a plan. Either is a dream. In order to actually ensure you’ll be able to follow through with your resolutions, determine how you’ll implement them into your daily life.
- It’s easy to make a resolution, but the hard part is figuring out how you’re going to do it! For my resolutions 1. Drink more water, I plan to use my 750 ml cup and drink 3 per day at work, plus 2 x 500 ml bottles in the evening at home. For 2. Go to the gym more often, I plan to make myself accountable to go to the gym 3 times per week. For my last resolution, 3. Be more patient, I realize that this is quite intangible compared to the others, so this may be a little more learn as I go and that’s okay! For now, I plan to be more mindful and attempt to consciously monitor when I start getting overly stressed and bring myself down a little bit.

The common theme with all 3 of my resolutions are that they’re positive additions to my life that I know I can achieve in my schedule and financial situation. I know that each of the 3 have major benefits in more ways than one, and they’re all things that I believe I should improve upon in my life, but they’re all realistic and manageable. Drink more water will result in drinking less coffee (and lessening yellowing on my teeth!), improving my skin and complexion, and benefiting my overall health. Going to the gym more often will make me stronger, healthier, less tired, and will guide me in continuing to eat well. Lastly, Being more patient will keep me more mindful and calm, and allow me to be less stressed which leads to many benefits in itself!

With each of these, I’m not punishing or depriving myself of anything, but enhancing my life through the use of simple changes that I’ll actually want to follow through with in order to become a better me! I challenge ALL of you to come up with a resolution or 2 that you’ll actually want to follow through with in 2018!!!