2022 – New Year Means New Years Resolutions

It’s officially 2022 and, as I do every year, that means it is time to look back on the past year and make some plans (probably a lot of the same as last year) for this new year.

If you took the time to check out my last post, as you can guess I wasn’t a big fan of 2021. 2021 was not a good year for me. I started the year with a lot of hope and optimism and ultimately spent most of the year (probably a little depressed) struggling to get motivated to take the steps necessary to make the changes I wanted to see in life.

I spent a lot of 2021 upset about where I was (am) in life and was too scared to actually make any changes. I spent all of 2021 thinking about the life I wanted and the changes I could make to get that life, while ultimately doing very little about it. I was so afraid of making a move or taking a risk that could fail, that I did nothing for most of the year. I don’t want that to happen this year.

So before I list out my resolutions for 2022, let’s see how I did in 2021 –

• Read more, hopefully, one book a month – Well, I started off on the right foot with this one. Early last year I read The Handmaid’s Tale, Kiss the Ground, and Greenlights. I also started this book on water and then it all fell apart. I got distracted, I started school and I just lost my motivation.
• Write more consistently, hopefully once a week – Some months I did good, some months I did bad.
• Get back into working out, eating right and loving my body – Well, this is just a work in progress. It took until the end of the year to even feel like I could work out and this past year we started our plant-based journey, so I guess that’s a win. Although we still eat out way too much. As far as loving my body, I’m working on it.
• Continue to educate myself on gardening and eat more food that I grow myself – This I did! And I just keep falling more and more in love with gardening and growing my own food.
• Build or refurbish something by myself – X
• Start a new project, anything, my book, my podcast, shirts, soaps, something – X
• Meditate on a regular schedule – X
• Start every morning with a positive/supportive thought about myself and end every night by listing at least three the things I am thankful for – X
• No more phone in bed – I did this for about three months and it was amazing. I’m not sure how I fell off the wagon on this one.

So looking back at that list, I guess I did better than I expected and also looking back through my blog posts from this past year, although I may not have done everything I wanted to or accomplished as much as I hoped, I did do things this year. I learned a lot. I grew a lot. And I explored new passions.

So what are my resolutions for 2022? Well, like I said it’s probably going to be a lot of the same, but I’ll list them out anyway for consistency.

• Read more, hopefully, one book a month.
• Start hiking more (once a month maybe) and spend more time outside.
• Write more consistently, hopefully once a week.
• Get back into working out, getting strong, eating right and loving my body.
• Continue to educate myself on gardening and eat more food that I grow myself.
• Build or refurbish something by myself.
• Start a new project, anything, my book, my podcast, shirts, soaps, something.
• Establish a side hustle or better yet, be able to sustain myself financially freelancing or any of my other interests.
• Meditate on a regular schedule and do daily face yoga.
• Start every morning with a positive/supportive thought about myself and end every night by listing at least three things I am thankful for.
• No more phone in bed.

Last year I also made a list of intentions for 2021 and although I did stick to them, I want to bring them into 2022. This next year I plan –

• to live an intentional life.
• to slow down and be ok taking a pause.
• to focus on the good, live life with gratitude and positive energy, less pessimism and negativity.
• to create memories and spend intentional time with family, friends and all my loved ones.
• to start speaking my mind.
• to figure out who I am and be ok with the process and the results. I want to love whoever that person is at whatever stage I happen to be at.
• to not be afraid to dream and chase those dreams.
• to create something larger than myself.

Cover Image by Natur_Fotograf