It’s a new year, so you know what time it is. The folks who don’t like new years resolutions have already posted their opinions about resolutions being a waste. “Here y’all go with that ‘new year, new me’ bullshit’ again,” they say! I don’t blame people for being pessimistic about resolutions; a survey from 2019 showed only 7% of people kept their resolutions.
For the past five years, I’ve set goals at the beginning of each year based on what I want to happen by the end of that year. I also create vision boards. I don’t do these things because I think they’re magical; I do them because when I lay out my goals and have a reminder of those goals, I am motivated to focus more on what I want to achieve.
But these past couple of years has been dreary. No matter which direction you turned to there was anger, fear, and sadness. Health, social, and political issues caused us all to feel a range of emotions, most of them negative. Despite it all, I still set goals in 2020 and 2021.
I feel a little shame admitting it, but I’m hopeful for 2022.
I was happy to see one of my favorite internet people tweet this. In the quote tweets, others admitted to feeling embarrassed, stupid, or stupid for having optimism for this year.
Why are people feeling shame about feeling positive about this near year? I think it’s because being negative is easier than focusing on the good that may come. The negative is already here, right in our face every day. We don’t see the positive until it happens. Also, getting your hopes up only to be let down leaves you feeling hopeless.
A new year rolling around will not stop the pandemic, political discourse, or social injustices. In spite of knowing this, I am still setting goals for 2022.
When I set goals for the new year, I think of how I want to improve each area of my life (relationships, health, money, etc). Once I write my main goals, I set mini-goals to focus on each month. My overall goal for 2022 is to do more of what makes me happy.
Jandra's Journal 