No New Year’s Resolutions for 2022

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No resolutions for me this 2022. Not yet, at least. When the new year approaches, it’s easy to jump into setting new goals and targets. But, I’d rather not do this prematurely, especially with all the hype and celebration. Apparently, less than 10% of people actually keep their resolutions. And for myself, I know if I set some resolution arbitrarily now, I’m probably not gonna stick with it for too long.

As the year wraps up, I reflect on my intentions for 2022. I have an unofficial bucket list of goals and such, though that is not specific to 2022. Instead of “resolutions” or goals for the first month, I’m going to be exploring values and ideas.

First off, I am creating a new vision board for the year. I created one last year, and was surprised to see that some of those experiences came to fruition, without really planning anything out of the ordinary. I reached certain health goals, feeling states, peaks in my creativity, and improvement in finances.

This year, I want to throw these intentions into the vision board ideas into the 2022 vision board:

– Travel/exploration
– Health abundance
– Improvement of skills
– Environment enhancements
– Social fulfillment
– Ideal living situation

This is just to name a few. The list might grow, change, or expand.

I saved a few photos to print and cut out later. I have various tools (stickers, scissors, pens, markers, gluestick, etc.) to help create the board.

To expand a bit upon my intentions for 2022, I’d like to invest in greater health (mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually), in healthy socialization, in improving my skills and learning, and creating a 10/10 living situation. That could look like so many different things, thus the exploratory first month.

I’m also going to be experimenting with this new bullet journal and budget journal for 2022 (this is the one I got– in rose gold). I already made some quick spreads at the beginning of the bullet journal. And for the budget journal, it was kind of spontaneous, but I thought it’d be useful for tracking income and such.

The reason that I decided to make January 2022 an exploratory month vs. working on any particular resolution, is because I feel compelled to go in different directions. And so, I’d like to clarify what is most important to me to work on.

I also went through two consecutive quarterly planning processes in the second half of 2021, and it was quite structured. I’d like to forgo that for Q1 of 2022. Sounds insane, right? Especially for anyone career-focused, business-oriented, or into personal growth. But for me, it makes a lot of sense to slow down and to reflect on what’s happened or what’s going on around me before jumping straight into a resolution simply because it is the new year.

I understand the pressure and expectation to always be doing something, to be a “productive member of society”, to always be striving to do more and to do better… There’s some appeal to it as well. But, I don’t want to constantly be doing things just for the sake of doing them. I want to have meaning behind it, something that I truly value.

That’s not to say that I’m completely lost or that I have no idea what I would like to experience or have. I have an unofficial bucket list of creative ideas or projects I’d like to execute, places I’d love to explore/travel, fitness aspirations, and more. I just don’t know for sure what will happen in 2022. And, I’d like to be a bit flexible about it.

Once upon a time in my 20s, I thought I needed to achieve everything all at once. I needed to become super successful. I needed to become super rich and become an influential philanthropist. I had all these ambitions and aspirations. Eventually over time, it stressed me out to the point of falling seriously ill. I thought that if I didn’t achieve all of these things by a certain age, then I was a failure of sorts. Or, that I was behind in life. Or, that something was seriously wrong with me.

If I do end up choose quarterly goals and such later through 2022, I’d like to make sure it is something reasonable, doable, and fulfilling. Or at the very least, even if I have D.U.M.B. goals, I’d like it to be exploratory and not be impressed upon specific deadlines or outcomes.

For sure, health is gonna top the list. But even with health, I want to diverge quite a bit. I have so many ideas I’d like to try before committing to any specific goals.

I’m sure it will be a creative and adventurous sort of year. And, I do have a few places and cities I’d like to visit. Though, I am quite flexible with that as well.

Resolutions rarely ever work for me, as I would feel the need to be achieving something drastically different from my previous year or years. Usually, the process was more disappointing or stressful than anything. It’s too outcome-oriented vs. process-oriented. That’s the reason why I don’t purely chase after money, attention, an ideal physique, etc. I want to enjoy what I’m doing right now, not what I could have by the end of the year. And honestly, focusing on the process has served me well. I’ve made and maintained great friendships. I’ve improved my health overall. I feel like my needs are being met. I’m always tuning into how I feel, the meaning I assign, and making sure that it aligns with my values and my intentions.

Goals are often boxed in and don’t always address the parameters of your life circumstances, especially if prematurely or poorly constructed. Resolutions are like this even moreso. Let’s say you decide you’re suddenly gonna lose 50 lbs. Hey, it might happen, especially if you have a solid plan or end up prioritizing that goal over anything else. But for myself, I don’t even know what I’d like to prioritize completely. Health is on the top of the list, though I know I’m gonna be doing a lot of experimentation anyway. I don’t know what that one thing is that I want to do no matter what this year, aside from short trials and such.

Besides the vision board and the journaling that I’m gonna attempt, I’m also continuing my lists of 10 ideas a day. I kind of adapted it a bit. Ideally, I’d do this every day. But if I’m already taking a lot of action, then it’s fine for me to skip it (though I try not to). If I find that I’m kind of in a slump, then I’d like to write 10 ideas a day and execute at least one idea. For me, ideas are plentiful. But, execution is the stumbling block. Even if I didn’t have ideas, there’s plenty of information online. It’s everywhere. So, that’s my way of making sure I’m doing something every day, especially something that aligns with my current interests, intentions, and priorities.

I do remember reading articles in the past about the small percentage of people who do end up keeping their resolutions. So, it’s not that I’m entirely opposed to it. I might even set a resolution for next year, who knows. For this January though, I will be in exploration mode.

Cheers! 🥂