Resolution revolution

Every year, I make resolutions & barely keep them past week two. I want to change that by not making any resolutions at all.

{I think I wrote a post on this a while ago, buuuuut I’m fairly sure it got lost in the transition last week and I’ve been too dang lazy to figure out how to find those posts again… so here we are.}

It seems odd to think about starting the new year without making specific “resolutions.” It’s a family tradition to get together on New Year’s Eve (or a few days later… or a few weeks later…) and go through a multi-page document that my dad puts together, where we write down our favorites & memories from the last year, and make resolutions and predictions for the year ahead. As we’ve all gotten older, the predictions for each family member have been more and more similar from year to year! It’s always fun to go back to see the previous year’s predictions and to see where we were wrong or right.

For me, though, it is so disappointing to look back on those resolutions, year after year, and not be able to check off any of them as completed or kept.

Even if the year has been full of love and laughter and emotions and growth and all of that good stuff, it still makes me feel strangely inadequate to know that I wasn’t able to stick to these lofty resolutions that would’ve apparently made my year so much better and worthwhile.

So I’m rethinking my need to make resolutions this year.

When I make these resolutions, set at this certain time of year, I’m being one part optimistic and one part crazy unrealistic. I’d love to believe in that “new year, new you” adage – that lightning bolt moment when once the clock hits 0:00, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE and THIS WILL BE THE YEAR I WILL FINALLY LOSE THAT COLLEGE WEIGHT and THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT BECAUSE UH WELL THE INTERNET TOLD ME SO.

As my personal life coach Gretchen Rubin (just kidding) explains, some people need “lightning bolt” moments {like a new year, the birth of a child, reading a specific book} to be able to make a sudden and lasting change to their habits, while others can do it on their own accord without a specific moment in time pushing them forward. And then there’s me, somewhere in between.

I think I’m the type of person who needs to create my own lightning.

I need to light a little fire under my own butt. No one else can give me that little push & make it last, and I can’t sit around waiting for it to happen. I am responsible for myself and my own well being, and I have not been doing a very good job with it lately.

To light that fire & to keep it burning, I need to have goals, big and small, that will help me feel like I’m making good use of my time and making progress in this lil’ journey of life.

This year, I think I’ll be setting achievable & reasonable goals, some of which can be quantified {I like checking things off of a list} and some that are more subjective.

Some of them might seem ridiculously small, and you might be thinking, what the what, you don’t do that every day? Some of them might seem big, but I think they’re achievable based on what I’ve been able to accomplish this past year. Some of them might be things that I’ve already made progress on, so I know they’ll be things that I can check off early in the year, which will give me a boost to keep going and striving to meet these goals. But they are goals, not resolutions. I might not make all of my goals, but I’ll feel like less of a failure than if I don’t keep my resolutions. There’s more leeway with goals rather than resolutions – to me, a resolution is something that you either stick to or you don’t, but a goal has a little bit of wiggle room and forgiveness. This might sound confusing to someone who’s not in my head (like, all of you, maybe), but typing out my definitely-not-sound logic feels good to me.

Here are just a few of my goals for 2017. I won’t be sharing all of them, because while I like accountability, some goals are more personal & don’t need to be seen by others. Just because I share some fairly deep things doesn’t mean I’m ok with being completely transparent.

• read at least two books per month
• blog more consistently
• get 15 minutes of movement in every day
• finish decorating the house {our walls are still slightly bare!}
• master Lightroom
• organize closet + dresser
• figure out what eating habits work best for me

Do you like to make resolutions, set goals, or do none of the above? I’d love to hear some of your goals for the year or the month ahead!