The New Year is approaching, and that means the dread of coming up with a New Years resolution or the guilt that you’re not going to make one. Personally, I think New Year’s Resolutions are overrated and honestly depressing. I prefer small goals: they’re more attainable and you can work on them throughout the whole year without that daunting shadow of a goal looming.
Small goals can range from anything to everything; from a month of not eating sugar, writing in a journal every day for a week, or being off your phone for a day. To me, it just doesn’t seem realistic to set a goal for 365 days. Your goal also doesn’t have to do anything with exercising or eating healthy either–which tends to be a theme for people in the new year.
Trying to improve yourself should be a daily goal, whether it’s forming small habits or large physical or emotional improvements. There’s also a lot of learning throughout the year. What if you discover something you want to set a goal for, but you’ve already committed to a year of a different goal? Smaller goals allow for a larger feeling of accomplishment and success.
New Year’s goals should be about trying something new and making yourself a better person. Here are some goals that you might want to try, or inspire you to come up with your own similarly manageable resolutions.
- Spend 1+ hours off your phone a day
- Have a vegetable at every meal for a week
- Try being a vegetarian for a week
- Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while
- Try a new restaurant this month
- Read a book this month
- Go to bed at the same time every night for a week
- Do something new with your hair
- Drink more water for a week
- Get a plant and take care of it
- Go to a class at the gym with a friend
- Try something totally new
This is just a small list of goals to inspire you. New Year’s resolutions don’t need to be for a year or a laundry list of impossible tasks (that we inevitably quit). It could be something manageable and that has a finish line you can see. Set a small goal that pushes you, but doesn’t make you feel bad about yourself. Small victories are still victories. Hopefully completing one goal will inspire you to try another.
Good luck and Happy New Year!
