Making Non-Traditional New Year’s Resolutions: Coming to Conclusions of 2016
*Disclaimer: This blog post was supposed to go out after Christmas and before New Years. I am back tracking it.
With Christmas being over, it means there is less than a week left till New Year’s Eve. It is time to wrap up the end of the year and to summarize all events throughout that year. For some reason, if most of you is like me, I feel the rush of “urgency” at the end of the year. Trying to get an enormous amount of thinking done in one week can be stressful. The craziness of Christmas preparations is over and now, there might be some spare time to think about New Years resolutions.
To my surprise I have realized that this year I am not going to set any of measurable type of New Years resolutions and let the year unfold as it is, with all its unexpected adventure ahead. Sometimes, being spontaneous is not a hurtful goal. However, I do want to say that I want to focus on few things: self-confidence, self-acceptance, self-loving and self-growth (if you do not know me personally, you probably think I am the most self-absorbed person on the planet-all of my goals involve “self” in its prefix). Those are goals which are hard to measure. Those are not traditional New Years resolution goals.
I promise I do not try to be a heartless jerk by focusing mainly on myself. I just think it is important to get to know yourself better. We can better serve other people, find happiness and a life purpose by listening to our hearts; explore things and build relationships which make us complete.
Every year I would sit down and write all those quantitative goals I want to accomplish. All those goals I can measure by pounds, amount, quantity, or concrete outcome-be it my professional career, personal life, or fitness. When year gets to an end, I feel a bit of disappointment of my unaccomplished goals. In reality, life is not a series of set in stone goals which last certain time frame. It is a progression of natural events and self learning which is to follow.
Every new year is an anticipation of changes and new hopes. Instead of setting quantitative goals such as lose twenty five pounds, read ten books, be promoted, get married, have kids, visit five new places and list can go on, focus on the meaning of life for you, and your better self.
It is important to not control events by measurements but to control the decisions which lead to those outcomes.
In our minds, most of the time we can only think about our limitations and not abilities we can develop. This year, I want to set aside time to strengthen my inner state by setting soft progressive goals: become a better public speaking and writer, read communication and employee development literature, involve in community and issues important to me, continue with fitness and eating clean, keep being open to new career opportunities and new friendships, continue being awesome and inspire (is not it cool to be called “awesome”?!).
Remember, there will be disappointments. By learning how to accept yourself with all imperfections and knowing that self-learning is a matter of self-exploration (okay, I am getting a little corny here but you know what I mean) will help outweigh all negatives. Our accomplishments consist of small steps which worth celebrating.
Thank you for reading my blog! ~Cheers to Your Successful You, Maria
