Why I Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions
Yep. You read that correctly. For 2021, I’m not setting any goals. And you know why? They never seem to work. This new year, I’m looking at this differently.
Before I get into my new mindset for 2021, I have a question:
Is anyone feeling the pressure of being productive? Especially as the end of the year and *shudder* new year’s resolutions start dropping into your energy field?
I am. And it’s the same every year. We make all these goals only for each one to fall flat. And then we feel horrible about ourselves, which pushes us even further away from getting anything done.
What if we treated 2021 differently?
This year has been bumpy for most of humanity, and I want to introduce a gentler approach.
There’s been talk of taking advantage of your time while we’re all at home for a lot of people. And while that’s admirable, it’s really not most people’s realities. There’s no reason for you to put pressure on yourself at any time. So if all you were able to do this year was manage, I’m proud of you.
I want to give everyone a different way to deal with the new year.
There are two options in front of you. Option A is to keep working, keep striving, stay busy, and never stop to rest. Fill up your time with new hobbies and accomplishments, and work.
Sounds exhausting, huh?
And then there’s Option B. Option B is gentleness and space for us to experience life. When’s the last time you stopped doing things and just felt into life? If it’s been a while, you may want to spend some time journaling and ask yourself: what are you distracting yourself from?
I’m picking gentleness and receiving going into 2021. I know that this new year has a lot in store for me, and I don’t want to miss anything.
Now obviously, you can make your life whatever you want. And if you tried something new this year, congrats! I’ve done a lot of new things this year myself. But I’ve also made sure to give myself rest time and be in the moment and appreciate life.
And you can absolutely make goals for yourself. I do it all the time. With New Years’ resolutions, we are typically trying to create a long-term habit or change. And we don’t give ourselves the time or actionable steps to cement this new habit. So it crumbles.
And I don’t want any of us feeling like our life is falling apart. 2020 was a year of slowing down. And 2021 has a lot in store for humanity. So what would it be like to just be?
Instead of new year’s resolutions, how about this year we decide just to experience life?
In a recent poetry circle, I wrote this poem to give a different perspective for 2021. May it help you as we move into a new stage of our lives.
Clean your house
Organize all the cabinets
Drop 10 pounds this year.
Drop 20 pounds this year.
All this busyness dresses itself up
as the go-to operandum for human improvement
at the start of each year
But one by one,
as it goes
each goal slowly slips away
the workout equipment gathering dust
the tower of books left unread
all the new hobbies you said you’d get to
burying itself deep in procrastination and unimportance.
as it happened the year before that, and the year before that.
Crowding your mind with unfinishedness.
What if we tried a different approach this time?
Shift the paradigm a bit?
Instead of all these shiny goals,
which sound so nice
but feel so wrong when
they remain incomplete
we give ourselves this year
to simply breathe and be?
Rather than a goal,
how about we let this new year be an experience?
A resolution quickly strips the present moment
of any significance
and leaves us scrambling, grasping,
yearning for the future
while the present fades into obscurity
Let us greet each moment-to-moment
as a simple truth:
that who we are
right now
is to be celebrated
and any endgame we have
will meet us as we live.
Clear your mind.
Shift your thinking.
Drop all the heaviness
that living in the future carries
and settle into simple consciousness.
