New Year’s Resolutions Are…Not a Thing This Year
Is it me or has everyone sworn off of New Year’s Resolutions in 2021? This is the time of year when I’m used to seeing the “New Year, New Me” posts all over my IG and Facebook, but even a few days before the 31st, I was seeing posts that were more like “New Year, Same Chick” (with more colorful wording, of course).
Personally, I made a decision last year to do away with New Year’s Resolutions. I didn’t do this because I don’t believe in setting goals and holding myself accountable. On the contrary, I’m ALL about that. I just don’t think that I need to wait until the first day of the year to go about setting my intentions and working toward them. I’ve also reached an age where reinventing myself yearly just seems…unnecessary. It’s taken a lot of effort to be the woman I am today, and I don’t feel the need to start from scratch. Instead, I want to keep improving.
Do Away With What Isn’t Serving You
So since we all seem to be in the same New-Year’s-Resolution-Cancelling boat, let’s put our energy into something more meaningful. Instead of setting major, reinvention-level goals, let’s start by doing away with the things that aren’t serving us. You’ve lived long enough now (especially after the test-of-faith rollercoaster that was 2020) to know what is serving you in a positive way. Maybe you’re really good at seeing the bright side of things, or you’re good at coming up with new ideas, or you discovered that you’re hella crafty and creative. Maybe you love yourself SO much that you give yourself the gift of forgiveness each time you make a goal and don’t follow through with it.
Aw, you didn’t finish that book you wanted to write? That’s OK. You were busy doing so many other things. There’ll be other days to write books.
Lean into those things that bring you joy and feed your soul, and then get rid of anything that drains you. For me, I realized that I am terrible at time-management.
There. It’s out in the internet Universe and can never be taken down.
I, Laura Lorta, am a hot mess express when it comes to getting things done. Don’t get me wrong, I accomplish whatever I set out to accomplish, but there’s a whole lot of hair-twirling, cookie-eating, and laundry folding that goes on before anything of substance gets done. (Seriously, when I’m procrastinating, the first thing I reach for is the laundry basket. It feels just productive enough that I can say I did something useful, but simple enough that I don’t actually have to use my brain).
I’m great at meeting deadlines, but I take. my. time. In fact, you’ve seen that meme on social that says “the fact that I procrastinate and still get things done is why I continue to procrastinate,” right? That’s my life in a nutshell. So what I need to do is take the thing that I’m great at (accomplishing goals/meeting deadlines) and enhance it by NOT waiting until the very last minute to get things done.
In previous years, I would make a resolution to set a strict daily schedule and stick to it, right down to setting alarms that will notify me when it’s time to switch to a different task. And that would’ve lasted all of one week and then I’d be exhausted and overwhelmed and get back to embracing my procrastination-loving soul. Now, what I’ll do instead, is only allow myself a certain number of tasks per day, rather than stare down my entire quarterly goals list each day trying to figure out where to start. So I’m taking my current practice of setting goals and enhancing it by scheduling a couple of specific things I can do each day to bring me closer to achieving whatever is on my plate for the quarter.
(As a side note: if you’re completely confused on what I mean about quarterly goals, I wrote a whole post about my method that you should check out).
You Don’t Have to Reinvent Yourself
My example was super specific, but the point I’m making is this - you don’t have to reinvent yourself. You’ve lived a whole life, learned a whole lot of lessons, and starting from scratch is not only counterproductive, but it’s an insult to the entire journey you’ve travelled up to this moment. Appreciate your journey and honor it by taking all of the positive things you’ve gained and leaving behind the things that don’t work for you. If you continually do this, you’ll not only keep improving, but you’ll be living more fully, really embracing all that you’ve experienced along your journey.
