New Years Resolutions Tricky? Try a Reflection Exercise Instead
It beats setting and forgetting!
I think a lot of us have made New Years resolutions and ditched them early on.
Weight loss, making money, doing something big, and then bam! By March, we barely remember them or are pretending we don’t remember them because we’re trying to excuse giving them up.
If you’re in that lot, I have a suggestion — instead of all that pressure to do something big next year, why not reflect on what you’ve done this year?
Reflecting can be started and finished in less than ten minutes, be done (guilt free) at your own pace, and we do it almost everyday!
Decide how you’re going to do it
People process their own lives and emotions differently. I do it by journalling, some do it all in their heads, some talk to themselves or other people — whatever your medium (haha) for it is, choose that!
You’re welcome to choosing a new method, or incorporating different ones into your reflection, but ultimately it should be tailored to what works best for you.
Be sure to find a time where you can do this uninterrupted. Make sure that when you start, you’re calm so that your thoughts aren’t affected by different emotions.
If you need an exercise to get yourself cool and collected, I recommend the xhalr site! It’s come in handy for both me and my friends in a pinch.
Define key moments in your year
What moments do you think were the most important this year? Was it something you did? Was it something that one of your family members went through? Did a new opportunity open its doors to you?
Give yourself time to think about those, be they good or bad.
What did you enjoy about them? What did you dislike? If you could’ve done it all over again, what would you have done instead?
Did you improve?
Your final step in this exercise is to ask yourself, “How does me at the beginning of the year compare to me now?”
Be honest.
Be entirely honest. Rip the bandaid off. Don’t sugarcoat it or dance around the truth. Did you get better or did you get worse?
You can lie on the paper you’re writing on or think it out, but the power in reflections rather than resolutions is that you’re exercising awareness.
You’re not setting goals to set and forget where you can wriggle out of accountability. You’re showing that you’re aware enough, mature enough, and mindful enough to know that even if the resolutions you set can’t be made for whatever reason, you can at least gauge yourself and where you stand currently.
We give up our New Years resolutions for a multitude of reasons. We underestimate how busy we are, we cut ourselves too much slack, we couldn’t predict a majour event ,we break down only after the fact what it means to do that big thing, and we falter.
Whatever the reason for ‘giving up’, there is one thing that we all lack and it contributes to why we failed.
Honesty.
If something big happened that made it physically impossible for us to achieve what we’d set out, that’s one thing. That’s out of your control.
But sometimes the goals we set are very well within our reach, but we aren’t honest about them.
We want to lost weight, we want to get lots of money, we want to go on that flashy trip, but we’re not being honest about where we stand currently, if some of the things we want can even be completed in the time frame we set, or if we’re really dedicated enough to do it or if we’re just inspired in the moment.
When you reflect, be honest with yourself.
When you set goals, be honest with yourself.
