By Catherine Lang-Cline
Can we all right now just admit that we are exhausted? If we do it all together we can start this year in a place that makes every single one of us aware that we are all trying to function a bit broken. We have learned a lot and carried on this past 2 years, which is why I think we need to rethink New Year’s resolutions.
Sure, you can say, “You are right. I am tired and I am not making any resolutions.” That is your prerogative and an option, but I am going to challenge you to rethink that. Rather than think about your weaknesses and how you plan to resolve them, ie: I need to lose weight, I need to drink more water, I need to (insert your need to here), think about your strengths and how you can focus more on that.
What did you enjoy doing last year? What are you good at? What made you feel great? Resolve to do more of that.
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Did you get a dog? Resolve to take more walks or to read a book with your little fur-buddy sleeping next to you.
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Did you have to home school your children? Resolve to keep spending time with them, but more time on fun things.
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Did you miss people? What about writing and mailing notes to people? You could also make time to journal about people and things that you are grateful for. Write one thing every day that you are grateful for.
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Did you enjoy making bread? Resolve to keep exploring all types of recipes. How about one a week?
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Did you watch a lot of streaming movies? Challenge yourself to watch something that is a bit out of your scope. Think documentaries, foreign films, award-winning movies, or even something completely ridiculous.
Resolutions tend to turn into something that punishes us for bad behavior. They tend to focus on our flaws or our weaknesses. I am proposing that we take a break from focusing on our flaws and rather focus on our strengths. We are good at so many things, let’s make resolutions to do more of those things! There are so many things that bring us joy, let’s commit to making more of those happen!
Me? I am committing to writing down those things that I am grateful for daily. I am also going to do more self-care. I had a lot of opportunities in the past two years to read, paint, not wear super-high heels, and I am committing to keeping on doing that.
Who is with me?
