Reflect And Refocus: What Are Your New Year’s Goals?
2024 is just around the corner and it’s only natural to look back over the year that’s passed and look for ways you can do better. New Year’s Resolutions can allow you to plan a course for your future. Personally, I haven’t made a New Year’s Resolution in years. Not because I don’t have anything that needs improvement, I just found myself losing my determination over time and not completing my goals for the year was more depressing than not having any goals at all. This year, I think I need to come at it from a different perspective. After all, as C.S. Lewis said “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” So, maybe my goals look a little different than they did in years past. Some might even call that growth.
One step at a time
Whether you’ve decided to make fitness more of a priority in 2024 or to travel more or to save more money, New Year’s Resolutions are less about attaining some impossible objective and more about making improvements in your life to yourself and for the benefit of those around you.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be “I will lose 20 lbs in 2024.” when it could just as easily be “I will be more mindful of what I eat.” or “I will make more time for exercise.” If all you do is make yourself walk around the block once a week, you have to see that that is an improvement over a more sedintary choice. Even small increments are a forward progression. It helps to focus more on what you can do to encourage yourself rather than beat yourself up over things you didn’t do.
A little kindness goes a long way
Learning to treat yourself as kindly as you do others can be a challenge when you are set on achieving a particular goal. For me it’s been an ongoing process of relearning how to speak to myself. My inner voice is mean to me! It’s an ongoing struggle to reprogram your brain into a more positive calibration, but it is possible! When in doubt, there’s always an app for that.
Go ahead and make the plunge
Perhaps that should be my New Year’s Resolution, to just be nicer to myself. It’s definitely a daily struggle and not an easy accomplishment, but it just might be the most important resolution of all!
