Happy New Year! Although not much has changed between December 31 and January 1, it always feels like a fresh start to me. I stopped making resolutions, because they feel so rigid to me. As soon as I’ve ‘messed up,’ it’s like I lose all momentum and can’t keep working towards that goal. I’m aware that this is a mindset issue, but instead of changing how my brain thinks, I decided to change how I approach my goals and intentions for the year.

Today is my father’s birthday, so we are planning a family lunch and then a visit to the cemetery. My sister came from out of state for this, and it has been nice to get a chance to finally bond with my older siblings now that the age gap between them and I doesn’t feel so significant. We have been worked together to coordinate caring for our mom, who has been needing more help.

It’s been a little while since I did one of these discussion posts, but it is one of the things that I’d like to focus my attention and energy on this year. Last year there were some really great discussions in response to these topics and I would like to continue doing that. Virtual socialization is my lifeline right now since I have only been leaving the house to attend appointments, and even that is a longer period than either my mother or I am comfortable leaving her alone for. Sometimes it feels like my brain is saying this to me:

Now that the update is out of the way, today I want to discuss how we approach a new year or even a new month. Do you make resolutions? It’s a popular idea, but I don’t see a lot of people sticking to them. Maybe there are people that can make resolutions and stick to it for the entire year, but it’s easy to see how a resolution can capitalize on a new beginning. If you’re comfortable, feel free to share them.

On the other hand, if you don’t do resolutions, how do you take on a new year? I like to have something to focus on, but I leave them as more flexible intentions that I can create monthly. This way I am able to customize my focus on whatever areas I need to work on. For this year, I am going to focus on reading my way around the world to get a peek into each country. It also pushes me to read more translated fiction and world literature, which I think is a good thing. I also like to make my intentions clear for the month and then be able to follow up 

Do you have any special routines or approaches to a new year or month or just a clean start? Let’s chat!