A Happy & Wonderful New Year with lots of Love, Breathtaking Moments and Good Health to all of you!
Why I like New Year’s Resolutions – and Why Not
I like the thought of starting the new year with a clean slate ready to tackle all those resolutions and goals. I like looking back and evaluating the past year (yep, I write year end summaries in my journal. There I list my highlights and the stuff that didn’t go as I planned, ahem). I like the general public optimism and the new found can-do attitude lots of people show off mostly a week before and a week after NYE.
What I don’t like is the fact that many people tend to start the new year and expect some magical things to happen, just because the clock is ticking and suddenly it’s past midnight and just like so, all their dreams will come true. And then a few weeks in (or sometimes just days) all this new-found motivation goes to the bar to get a drink, play some pool and chill out.
I’ve been there. With tons of unrealistic goals which got overwhelming very fast. And then I ignored those goals until the year was over and set them right back on my list for the new year. After a few years, I finally understood: This is not how it works.
8 Things to Consider when Starting a New Year
So here are my 2ct:
- Start your year however you like and not how society makes us believe we have to.
- Not everybody feels super excited and energized just because a new year has started, and that’s fine.
- If you’re super excited and energized, then by all means, go out and conquer the world!
- Have (realistic) resolutions – or be the non-resolutions person, if this concept doesn’t work for you.
- Set big goals or small ones. Set personal goals or professional goals or do both (read more about goal setting that makes sense here). Just do it for yourself and not to please others.
- No one is allowed to judge your goals. No one.
- Use a whole year as a timeframe to measure and plan your life – or use any other timeframe (e.g. 3 or 6 months) that works best for you.
- Start your journey whenever it feels right to you. If that’s in the middle of April, well, then it’s in the middle of April.
For me, a whole year is a reasonable timeframe to plan ahead, to analyze my achievements and downfalls, and to observe my personal growth journey.
Whatever you choose to do, I hope it’ll bring you joy, excitement and happy moments!
Start Now and Keep Going
To get you going, here’s this week’s list full of inspiring content:
…reading:
How to be motivated AF. This is the right post for you, if you’re all about setting inspiring goals for the new year – and also want to accomplish them. Do you have a vision? Do you know how to set goals that are S.M.A.R.T. and do you know how to track these? In this post, I’ll guide you through 4 steps, so you’ll be able to work on your big vision no matter which day or time of year it is. You got this!
…listening:
Don’t be so hard on yourself by Jess Glynne. Something to remember frequently. Nothing more to say really. Also a great song to start your day dancing around the house like no one’s watching!
…watching:
Tidying up with Marie Kondo on Netflix. I binge-watched all episodes on Jan 1st and then spend Jan 2nd up until Sunday to declutter, tidy and organize our entire apartment, when this first came out. We don’t own that much (given that we don’t have access to a basement in normal apartment buildings in Dubai) and we still managed to get rid of a substantial amount of stuff.
Now, the apartment feels somehow lighter. It looks amazing and we feel happy whenever we come back home. It’s funny because Marie Kondo doesn’t teach rocket science, but sharing a system for tidying up that’s easy to follow was an absolute genius idea by her. Despite being a basic activity it’s remarkable how tidying up changes the mindset of people.
…doing:
Roasted Rainbow Veggie Bowl by Minimalist Baker. That’s often my dinner – if you haven’t seen it on instagram, here’s that gorgeous picture. This meal is so yum and easy to prepare, I could eat it every day.
We get an organic veggie box delivered by a local farm every week and it makes meal prep and daily cooking much easier (also, it’s much more affordable than getting overpriced imported veggies from the supermarket).
Now your turn: Tell me, how did you start your new year? Are you a resolutions person or not so much? Leave me a comment!
Love,
Nina
