New Year's resolutions

By Jenna Shackelford, posted Jan 11, 2022 on BizFayetteville.com

It’s 2022. The new year is here, and change is in the air.

Or at least, it always feels like change is in the air to me at the beginning of a new year because that’s when I sit down, open up my Notes app, and start jotting down my resolutions for the year.

With that time of goal-setting comes a time of reflection on the year prior and whether I followed through on my resolutions.

Moment of truth … the results of my 2021 resolutions.

1. Invest in healthy friendships. The past year was a great time to see old friendships strengthen and new friendships blossom.

2.Try one new food a week. This one is theoretically a fun and good idea. But time restraints and habitual cravings got in the way of completing this goal. I tried 26 foods.

3.Exercise every single day. HA. Yeah … no. That didn’t happen.

4.Take more pictures. I did this one, and looking back on the fond memories I created with people I love over the past year brought me great joy.

5.Read 30 books a year. I accomplished this goal in 2020, but fell short in 2021, clocking in at a meager 17.

I know not everyone enjoys resolutions. Why is that? One of the reasons, I think, is that people see not completing a resolution as failure.

If you set a goal in such a way that it MUST be completed by Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m., then yes, with those stringent parameters, I guess you could say the incompleteness of a goal is failure.

I don’t view my resolutions that way.

Merriam-Webster defines resolution as, “the act or process of resolving.”

It defines resolve as, “to find an answer or solution to (something) : to settle or solve (something)” or the second definition says “: to make a definite and serious decision to do something.”

Sometimes, settling something or making a serious decision doesn’t reach its end in 365 days.

Commemorating new beginnings creates an intentional time of reflection and thankfulness; but when determining resolutions, as far as I’m concerned, every day is the start of a new year.

Sure, on a calendar, it’ll be 2022, but every day is a new year in that every day is the start of the next 365 days ahead.

Strive to reach your goals, celebrate your wins. But it’s never too late to start or finish personal or business development.

Allow yourself to continue with your goals.

Give yourself grace. Have the courage to start over.

Wishing you a happy 2022, and a happy new year as you embark on a new journey every single day.

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