New year, new me? No. New year, better me. 2023 was a pretty great year, so how can we make this one even better? Here’s how I’m starting 2024 the right way with aspirational but achievable goals, and reframing my outlook on resolutions!
The year of improvement, not change
Why does the new year have to mean change? I like the person I am, and I don’t want to change that. I just want to improve on some of the great foundations I made last year, reflect on what went wrong, and do my best to be better this year.
Now, I think the reason so many people give up or go wrong with their new year resolutions, is because they’re trying so hard to completely change and be something that their not. Whilst I’m not saying that you should never aspire for change, but it’s not always a necessity. And it’s never going to happen overnight.
New year, new me? New year, better me.
The year of saying no
If 2023 was all about saying yes to doing more things, 2024 is learning to say no to the things I don’t want to do.
I find myself doing a lot of things out of fear of upsetting someone, people pleasing, and worrying what will happen if I don’t. Last year I vowed I would say yes to doing more, but now I want to only say yes if it’s something I really want to do. No more going out for the sake of it, especially if I don’t want to and hoping I’ll get into it more in the evening. No more agreeing to things if it doesn’t align with what I want. Ultimately, no more saying yes to make other people happy.
I want to say no not only from a personal growth position, but also one of financial growth. Last year was very much say yes to everything and do everything – and I did that! I was lucky enough to go abroad 3 times, attend 6 concerts and even get a new puppy. However, this year I want to be more financially conscious and make the effort to save, whilst still allowing myself to have fun where I want to.
Saying yes to everything is great, but running myself into the ground trying to do everything isn’t. It’s all about trying to find the happy medium!
The year of being less harsh on myself
As I said earlier, so many resolutions are given up on because change is expected overnight. Often it requires slow and steady progress.
I too have expected change to happen overnight, which is why I want to purely focus on improving my efforts from last year. I didn’t run 5km. Also, I didn’t post a blog post consistently every week. But I did put the foundations in place to do so. Some things don’t happen the way you plan and that’s okay, you can’t control every situation. The important thing is recognising what went wrong, why it went wrong, and what to do about it to be even better at it the second – or third – time around.
Reframe the perspective and don’t be so harsh on yourself!
The year of all the ‘als
I know what you’re thinking – what does that even mean?
Another way I have approached resolutions this year is by breaking them into clear categories: physical; mental; emotional; financial; and environmental. All the ‘als! Viewing them this way allows me to see exactly what I want to achieve, and what I can realistically achieve, rather than just hoping to complete everything all at once.
On the other hand, it also means I can work on improving the different aspects in my life, rather than focusing too much on one area. Again, it’s about finding the balance and the happy medium between the two, which is a clear theme in this post and within my overall intentions for 2024.
2024 is the year for improvement. With these things in place, I believe I can really start to see the improvements that I have been hoping to see for so long.
What resolutions do you have? Are you hoping to be better, or to change altogether?
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