Apparently most people give up on their New Year resolutions by this point. In fact, January 17th is “Ditch New Years Resolutions Day.” So I figured if I didn’t declare my 2021 goals until after that date, I’d surely to stick to mine—right? I mean, the logic is almost there.
Resolutions aren’t that big of a deal to me, but I have benefited from writing down goals in the past to kind of set the tone for my year. So that’s what I’m doing today! When thinking of what to focus on this year, I wanted to make sure I set goals that were actually helpful and attainable—not ones that were too drastic from my normal life or overly vague.
One thing I started doing a few years ago was pick a word as a theme for my year. It’s not necessarily the focus of my specific goals, because I like to cover a variety of areas, but I like to have that guiding word to come back to. For 2021 I decided on the word intention.
The point of focusing on “intention” this year means I want to live more purposefully. I want to incorporate more things into my daily life that fulfill me. Or in some cases this will translate to being more mindful with what I already do by living in the present.
Some words and phrases that guided me in past years are:
- Goals for 2017: The Year of Fitness
- Goals for 2018: Back to the Basics
- Goals for 2019: Keep on Keepin’ On
- Goals for 2020: Being More Mindful
But going beyond my guide word for this year, I put together some more specific goals for myself. Most of them are variations of goals I’ve made for myself in the past, because they were great challenges and I want to stay on course with them. So here’s a look at what I plan to work toward this year:
- Keep doing my early morning routine, which involves starting my day with coffee and a book followed by a 20-minute workout. (This routine has been such a game-changer for me, and I don’t want to lose momentum.)
- Try a new produce item each month. I had this goal last year, but the pandemic put a damper on my grocery store wandering. I’m hoping to try a bit harder this time around and find new-to-me items to try.
- Read (or listen to) at least 30 books. Last year I read 37 books even though I had a goal of only 12, so this year I’m creating a better challenge for myself.
- Explore more practices on mindfulness, such as following guided meditations like yoga nidra videos once a week (which I allude to in my 4-point checklist for relaxing).
Four seems like a good number, and those cover food, fitness, hobby, and mental health. If I were to come up with more, I think I’d lose focus on those and ignore one or more. So! That’s my 2021 goals situation.
Are you setting any goals this year for yourself?
Do you have any advice for fun new produce items or guided meditations I should try?
