Finding Joy Without Making New Year’s Resolutions

It’s the time in January when New Year’s Resolutions are being left by the wayside and all your plans for bettering yourself may have been forgotten. But I didn’t set a New Year’s Resolution.

It’s not that I don’t have goals. I have lots of goals. I just don’t like the pressure of New Year’s Resolutions …essentially setting myself up to fail. So many friends shared their 2023 resolutions on social media, some with pretty extreme changes.

Maybe it’s just the rebellion in me refusing to set lofty goals for the year; or maybe, just maybe, I’ve learned from experience, monthly goals are more effective and more rewarding. By setting a short-term goal, I’m able to measure my success or failure more often and hit ‘reset’ or make adjustments as needed without feeling like I’ve failed.

So we are a couple of weeks into 2023. What has January looked like so far? It’s been pretty routine… exactly what I needed after the holidays! 

In December, I think I consumed my body weight in Christmas cookies. All that extra sugar had me feeling pretty sluggish. Getting back to my regular eating routine this month, I feel so much better. I do love Christmas cookies… before next December, it would be good to strategize how best to handle my love of cookies!.

Between traveling and the holidays, my workouts were a little hit-or-miss last month. This month, I’ve scheduled my workouts and made them a priority again.

I do want to be more active here on my blog. This is an area I’ve neglected and want to prioritize this coming year. I have so much to say… about my adventures in jiu jitsu, intermittent fasting, Christian living, books I’m reading, homeschooling, family-approved recipes and maybe my dinner plans, just life in general. Look for a post soon about my first four months of jiu-jitsu… 

If you set New Year’s Resolutions for yourself this year, I hope you are going strong and making progress. If you are struggling, I would challenge you to re-think your resolution and consider setting a monthly, or even a weekly, goal instead.