My New Year's Not Resolutions, Resolutions

I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. I don’t like setting myself up for failure at the start of a new year. But, although for me ’21 wasn’t as bad as 2020, I felt stagnant in ’21. My joy and peace went down and my weight went up, my self-discipline suffered, and my body just aches.

So, while I will not resign myself to start and ultimately fail any annual resolutions, I have decided to do one thing differently for ’22. I am going to slow down and enjoy the “now”, and here’s how I plan to do it.

First, I’m going to make my bed at least three times a week. Why make my bed, of all things? For two reasons; one, it’s something I can control and it makes me feel good to have a put-together bedroom. In ’21 I worked from home and got into a bad habit of never making my bed. Because I was at home all day, I walked into my bedroom multiple times throughout the day and seeing my unmade bed day after day began to have a surprisingly negative effect on my mood. The second reason is that it forces me to attend to the small details in life I used to overlook just so I could rush to get started on my day. Rush, rush, rush. That was what ’21 was like for me and I paid for it, too.

Next, I’m going to be kinder in what I say to myself and others. In the book The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Ruiz writes, “If you understand the first agreement, be impeccable with your word, you begin to see all the changes that can happen in your life. Changes first in the way you deal with yourself, and later in the way you deal with other people, especially those you love the most.” I am going to strive daily to be impeccable with my words.

And finally, I’m going back on my news fast. If it bleeds, it leads seems to be news outlets mantra. I am so tired of all the negativity being reported on in the news. Sure, bad things happen…it’s the fallen world we live in, but the media does very little reporting on what is good. I’m sick of hearing about the pandemic, coming wars, rising prices, shortages, and global warming. I’m tired of the news pushing grim news down my throat while offering no solutions to fix any of it. Modern media simply cares about profit, not people.

So there you have it. My new year’s not resolutions, resolutions. I’d like to think of them as course corrections for my life. Not resolutions. Anyway, here’s to ’22; I have no faith that it will be better than ’20 or ‘21, but at least I can do something to improve myself.