New Year’s Resolutions for the past 8-ish years

I’m happy and proud to say that I’ve achieved my new year’s resolutions for the past four years. 🙂 I’m feeling a bit burnt out from new year’s resolutions, lol, and I don’t feel like I need to come up with new things to achieve. My life doesn’t need to be radically different from what it is now. I think it will be great if I can just continue doing the things I’ve made resolutions for in past years. Hence, my 2022 resolution is…

2022 New Year’s Resolution:

• Be effective / do what works

2021 New Year’s Resolution:

• Stability. I achieved this mainly by moving out to an apartment with my roommate, and by getting a part time job. I also had an unpaid internship for 8 weeks. When I am living in my apartment (I’m at home with my family right now), my life is quite stable. It’s great. 

I wrote the following in 2020 and never published it:

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I’ve finally figured out what I want my new year’s resolution for this year to be. 🙂

I know lots of people don’t like new year’s resolutions for a variety of reasons, but I do, and I find them helpful, so I’m going to keep making them. I love all sorts of goals, plans, and structure in my life.

My 2020 New Year’s Resolution is:

1. to trust myself ten times more than I trust other people
   • and to not give in to peer pressure
   • and to put self care first
2. also, less importantly, to continue to read the news
3. and to improve my vocabulary 

2019 New Year’s Resolutions: 

1. Survive
2. One thing in the moment / one thing at a time
3. Read the news

2018 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Continue to have a healthy routine
2. Tend to my emotional garden

Drawing: “Tending to my emotional garden”

Image description: Drawing of a watering can watering various flower that have various needs written on them, like “peace,” “meaning,” “control,” “cared for,” “privacy,” and “expression.”

2017 New Year’s Resolutions: 

• Trust my instincts
• Do things regularly / forming a healthy routine

Trusting my instincts means listening to my heart to hear what it really wants, believing there is a good reason I feel this way deep down, and making decisions that factor in this gut feeling. Trusting my instincts will help me look out for myself. I will become more attuned to my feelings, especially unusual feelings and especially strong feelings. I will trust myself and not go along with someone else’s decision if it doesn’t feel right.

Doing things regularly means forming healthy habits that help me with the rest of my daily life. This means breaking out the old “Daily Check-in” sheets and filling them out. It means brushing and flossing my teeth and wearing my retainer more often. It means making my bed, picking out my own clothes, making my own lunch. Becoming self-sufficient. Writing in my journal more, meditating more, exercising even when I don’t have sports practice.

Trusting my instincts Action Plan:

• Learn more “feelings” vocab. Look up a list and learn one new word a day.
• In my journal, record unusual or unusually strong feelings I’ve had throughout the day.
• In my journal, describe my feelings. Dig deep down. Where’s the conflict? Is there desire, shame, guilt, fear, anger? What feelings do I have towards certain things? And where might these feelings be coming from? Past experiences with the same thing or similar things? What is different and the same this time around?
• In my journal, write about the decisions I make and how I’ve made them. What instincts factored into each decision? Looking back, was it a good way to factor in the instincts? Did I trust them too much, not enough, just the right amount? Am I proud of this decision now? Would I make the same decision now?
• In my journal, write about what other people want me to do or want from me. How does this differ from what I want for myself? Where do we converge and diverge? Is it possible to compromise? What is the best path to follow going forward?

Forming a healthy routine Action Plan:

• Map out what my ideal day looks like.
• A healthy routine has many parts. Track them on the daily check-in sheets and work towards goals. It may be hard to do all at once, so focus on a couple things at a time.
• Modify the daily check-in sheets, and print more.
• Set SMART goals.
• Things to learn
  • Sun salutations
  • How to meditate on my own
  • How to wash a bra

What could an ideal day with a healthy routine look like?

In the morning:

• Wake up. Lay in bed.
• Get out of bed. Drink water.
• Exercise: knee-elbows, plank or brush and twist, others as needed.
• Yoga: sun-salutations or the go to bed / wake up routine I came up with.
• Meditation: mindfulness on 7 cups, YouTube, or on my own. Drink more water.
• Go about business. Go to the bathroom. Take out retainer. Brush teeth and retainer. Clean eyes and nose.
• Make bed. Brush hair. Get dressed.
• Cook breakfast. Eat breakfast. Get in car. Drive to school.

At school:

• Drink from water bottle. At least one bottle should be empty by 2:15.
• Remind yourself to blink. Remind yourself to stretch and move your shoulder muscles. Remind yourself of your posture. Sit at the back of the chair and lean into the back.

In the afternoon or evening:

• Make lunch and snacks for the following day.
• Pick out tomorrow’s outfits and sports clothes, if necessary.
• Pack backpack for the next day. Refill water bottle.

 

• Write in journal, even if it’s one sentence.
• Exercise if you haven’t yet and it’s not a rest day.
• Take a step on 7 cups.

 

• Every three days: shower, wash hair, wash face.
• Once a week: wash clothes, use a pore strip, clip nails. Write a long journal entry. Let out all your feelings to someone: friend, listener, therapist.
• As needed: use lotion.

Before going to bed:

• Set alarm for the morning and the next night.
• Drink water, brush and floss teeth, put in retainer. Go to the bathroom.
• Fill out Daily Check-In sheet. Say positive affirmation. Do yoga. (the order here can be mixed around 🙂 )
• Climb into bed slowly, still breathing slowly. Lay on back in a comfortable position. Good night! 🙂

 

2016 New Year’s Resolution: 

• love myself unconditionally

2015

• I made many new year’s resolutions and plans for many domains of my life, like physical, social, etc. A big one was getting enough sleep. I had plans to gradually change my bedtime and alarm time… And wasn’t on track with them almost immediately. I gave up early on. It was too much.

2014 

• Similar to 2015. I used to have a picture of these old goals (2014 & 2015) on my phone, but my phone broke and I lost my photos… 

2013 and earlier

• I wasn’t as serious about new year’s resolutions back then. However, I remember that my new year resolutions from something like  4th grade-7th grade were to stop procrastinating. Lol. Still haven’t achieved that… But I’m working on it. 🙂