It’s that time of year again. When there are gym commercials playing on every TV channel and on the radio. When people suddenly start bringing salads and fruit for lunch. When people start acting nicer to each other. When people complain about how no one will keep their resolution, so what’s the point in making one in the first place?
I used to not care for New Year’s resolutions. I was one of those people who claimed that time was just this thing that humans made up to organize everything and the new year was nothing significant. If you wanted to change something about your life, you shouldn’t have to wait for a new year to initiate it. However, the past couples years, I found myself making New Year’s resolutions. As I became older, they trended away from generic resolutions like eating healthier or losing some weight, and they started focusing more on my mental health.
In 2016, my resolution was to be happy. It sounds like it would be easy, but 2016 was a difficult year. In 2017, I revised my resolution a little bit and decided I wanted to learn how to be happy on my own and not relying on relationships or friendships for happiness. I wanted to find it on my own. I wanted to be truly content spending a Friday night by myself instead of letting it depend if I would go out that night. Reflecting on this past year, I feel like I achieved that. 2017 was really an amazing year for growth, and I was truly happy.
For 2018, I wasn’t sure what I wanted my resolution to be. I thought about starting a blog, but I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to keep up with it; I already couldn’t keep up with my own journaling. Then I thought about building on last year’s, but I didn’t want to make it my main focus again. I started reflecting on what some of my biggest struggles in 2017 were, and I found my answer. No, it wasn’t to learn how to cook more than five dishes, have less road rage, or work out more like I’ve been saying I was going to start since I moved out of my parents’ house.
I decided this year I was going to focus on taking better care of myself. I realize that’s really broad, but I think that’s a good thing. It won’t be as easy as it sounds. It doesn’t just mean that I’m going to take more relaxing baths and eat more dark chocolate, although I will probably still do both of those anyways.
Last semester, I pushed myself too far, and I was crawling to the finish line by the end of the sixteen weeks. I had put too much on my plate, but I was determined to prove that I could do it. I don’t want to get to that point again, so this year I’m going to focus on making sure I realize my limits. I’m going to focus more on making sure I have some time for myself and that every day isn’t filled with somewhere that I have to be. I’m going to take better care of my physical health and confront my fear of hospitals and doctors. I’m going to learn how to say no to things that I really don’t have time for. I’m going to learn to make time for the things I want to do like finishing reading books that have been on my nightstand for the past few months, or working on writing my poetry book, or watching The Office for the eighth time in a row. I’m going to try to take better care of myself physically by getting more sleep, trying to eat better, and maybe working out every now and then. I’m going to surround myself with positive, supportive people. I’m going to make sure that I make time for the people that I care about and catch up with old friends because in the end that’s more important than a 4.0 GPA.
It sounds like a lot, but if you consider the fact that I have a year to work on all of it, it doesn’t seem too bad. If you are still searching for a resolution, maybe consider one focused around taking care of yourself. We’re all busy with so many things demanding our attention that I feel as if we rarely take time for ourselves. So here’s to 2018. I have really high hopes for this year.
Happy New Year,
Alyssa Harmon