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5 Things BETTER than a New Year’s Resolution

Claire Becker

Did you make a New Years resolution?
Is there a chance it’s broken already?
Skipped it all together?

You’re in the right spot!

I recently saw an article that shared the top 10 most common New Years resolutions:

  1. Exercise more

  2. Lose weight

  3. Get organized

  4. Learn a new skill or hobby

  5. Live life to the fullest

  6. Save more money / spend less money

  7. Quit smoking

  8. Spend more time with family and friends

  9. Travel more

  10. Read more

Two initial reactions came to mind as I read it:

First, I’ve got to admit I’ve said a few of these items (exercise? Yep. Learn? Yep. Read? Yep, friends and family, yep. And that’s not good, bad or anything! It’s true! I want more in these areas in my life.

Second, I notice that they’re a lot of external things - sure our insides get better when we quit smoking or see our friends and family, but on the surface, they’re about engaging with our outside world.

What if, instead, we made commitments about how we’ll care for ourselves in our inside world?

Here are 5 Things to do BETTER than making a new year’s resolution:

  1. Decide what you'll commit to forgiving yourself for this year.

  2. Choose a feeling or action you'll give yourself permission to feel this year.

  3. Brainstorm how might you treat yourself on a weekly basis this year.

  4. Commit to disconnecting so often (What disconnection will give you most peace? And, how often do you want to make it happen?).

  5. Calendar breaks for yourself in 2022.

Here’s how they’re coming to life for me:

  • This year I commit to forgiving myself for making mistakes.

  • I want to give myself permission to feel sadness without making it “productive.”

  • I want to treat myself on a weekly basis by doing a walk-in-talk phone call (bonus if I’m sharing that walk in a new park or with someone I love).

  • I want to disconnect from email this year! I’m committing to myself to turn off my email when I sign off on Friday evenings.

  • I promise to give myself breaks from pretending to know it all and from routines - with a bucket list of things to learn and things to do each quarter.

Which one of these commitments will you make for yourself? Comment one below!