Why I Make a New Year’s Bucket List Instead of Setting Resolutions
And Why It’s a Lot More Fun
2023 is coming to an end, and with the new year on the horizon, lots of us will be drafting our resolutions.
Whether you want to start a new hobby, implement an exercise routine, learn a skill, or increase your confidence, setting resolutions might be a little intimidating.
After all, what are you going to do when your motivation runs out? What happens when February rolls around and January didn’t go quite how you wanted it to? Do you scrap the plans and start over next year?
We love to draw arbitrary lines to divide eras of our lives. We like to think of the new year as a different age. An opportunity to start over. A way to shed our old habits and build ourselves up again.
But it doesn’t really matter if it’s a new year or a new month, does it? Even a new week is an opportunity to change.
God knows I’ve made some very important decisions on impulse in the middle of a day. Lines don’t divide anything clearly when it comes to time.
But nevertheless, resolutions can be helpful for seeing where your goals stand. My only qualm with them is that they’re really easy to view through a black-and-white lens.
That’s why I prefer to make a bucket list. It’s more flexible, and if motivation for one goal falls short, you can switch to a different goal for a little while. This way, you can make progress steadily throughout the year, even if you’re not making progress on the same thing all the time.
For 2024, I decided to format my bucket list like a bingo sheet. I don’t have to achieve everything on it, but I know I can get a bingo or two before the year ends.
When I make my bucket list, I like to include a couple things that I know will be easy (like watching a new movie or trying a new restaurant), a couple things that I know will be hard, but achievable (maybe something I’ve been working on for a while, like finishing a draft of my book), a couple things I can do early in the year, and a couple of things that I don’t plan to get done until later.
It’s nice to have a variety of things to work on. That way, you won’t have to define your year based on any one goal.
How do you like to get ready for the new year? What goals are you setting for 2024?
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