Are you ready for 2022?!
The start of a New Year is the perfect opportunity to reflect, reset and make new goals. It signals the opening of a new chapter about to begin and brings a feeling of renewed hope and excitement for what may lie ahead. It’s a great time to make a course correction if you’ve subtly veered off the path you need to be on, or to re-think routines that just aren’t working for you and your loved ones anymore. To come up with new and meaningful New Year’s resolution ideas that will bring you closer to the life you envision.
At the time of writing this post studies have shown that 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions don’t last into mid February! And while there are many reasons for the ‘why’ behind these resolutions being discarded soon after they’re made, I personally think it has to do with the aspiration not being meaningful enough to habitually pursue.
When it comes to failed New Year’s resolutions, I am as guilty as the eighty percent who lost their motivation only 6 weeks in! I’ve made goals that were too lofty to reach within a year’s time frame and schedules that I could never realistically keep. That’s when I realized the ideas I was writing down as resolutions weren’t things that brought me closer to the life I longed to live.
In order to change that failing pattern for 2022, over the past few weeks I have taken a good, long, hard look at my life and deeply reflected on what I’m doing well, what I would like to do better and what I would like to change.
I’ve also had a lot of fun daydreaming with my spouse, chatting about what we want out of life and how we can make progress towards our vision.
Out of that process has come the following list, which I think is a little more realistic than the typical promise to ‘exercise more‘ and more meaningful (in my opinion). My hope is that you will be able to adopt some of these ideas or that they will be a jumping off spot for you to explore your own aspirations that are significant to you personally!
So without further ado, here are my New Year’s resolution ideas!
1. Take a Sabbath Day every Week to Rest
If you’re like me, it’s hard to let go of productivity (chores, remodeling, planning, ect.) to rest. But taking off one day a week is not only Biblical (Exodus 20:8), it’s scientific, too! How you decide to spend this rest day is up to you but here are some of my thoughts:
- go to church (spend time worshiping, reading scripture, praying and meeting with other believers)
- leave the dishes and laundry undone for a day
- read and play with your children
- take a day trip and explore a nearby city
- nap
- watch a movie
- go out to eat for a meal
- steal away for an entire hour to pray and connect with God
- invite friends over for board games
- take a walk in nature (neighborhood, park, ect.)
2. Wake up Before the Kids
I think every parent would ideally wake up before their children to fit in some coffee, me & and Jesus time. And while I personally haven’t been able to do this in every season of my adult life due to being up all hours of the night with nursing infants and young children (there is grace for those seasons mamas), I notice a huge difference in my spiritual walk and attitude in seasons when I can. Instead of feeling depleted, bled dry, hanging by a thread and behind schedule, I feel filled up, patient and more in-tune with my family’s rhythm.
3. Make the Bed every Morning
There is nothing better than jumping into a neat and tidy bed every evening! You will sleep better at night and feel more accomplished during the day. Plus, it’s a fact that successful people make their bed every morning. You can read more about that HERE.
4. Create a Cleaning Routine (and stick with it!)
Have you ever walked into a friend’s house and wondered how in the world she keeps it so clean? My bet is that she has a functioning, well serving cleaning routine. And while every household’s needs are different and every family’s idea of clean may be different, a cleaning routine is beneficial because it takes the guess work out of what needs to be done for the day. The hardest part is just getting that tushy off the couch and moving!
I am still tweaking my cleaning routine to work better for my family but it looks something like this:
DAILY
- clean kitchen entirely at least once/day (dishes, wipe down counters, run dish washer)
- 1-2 loads laundry, fold and put away
- sweep/vacuum all wood floors
- pick up toys
- keep on top of spills, put laundry in hamper, ect.
WEEKLY
- deep clean bathroom
- vacuum bedrooms and any carpeted areas
- organize at least one area that has gotten out of hand
- dust/wipe down surfaces (coffee table, entertainment center, etc.)
- clean windows & mirrors
- wash all bed sheets (comforters monthly)
- clean out refridgerator
- deep clean oven
5. Get Rid of Toxic Cleaners
I have dabbled in using natural cleaners from time to time but recently I learned that many household cleaners are linked to neurotoxins that can cause dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease. As someone who has had a grandparent suffer from dementia, it was a wake up call for me! Now I’m determined to no longer use ANY toxic cleaners in my home.
6. Pay off Debt
Debt sucks. Trust me, I know from experience! And while I’m not against certain types of debt (house, car, school, even remodeling, things that need a means to an end), I do think the longterm security and financial freedom of paying loans off is worth every ounce of effort! Devin Thorpe’s book, 925 Ideas to Help You Save Money, Get Out of Debt and Retire A Millionaire has been a EASY (emphasis on easy) and invaluable read to me and I also am looking forward to reading Dave Ramsey’s latest book, just released this month!
7. Grow Something
There are many wonderful health benefits to owning indoor plants (and I have a few) but my heart is leading me outdoors this year to cultivate and plant a vegetable garden. I’ve had two unsuccessful gardens in my adult life (anyone else?) but I’m thinking with enough planning 2022 just might be my year!
8. Learn how to Recycle
This may shock and offend some of you but the truth of the matter is, I don’t recycle… or compost. But I would really like to! Hence the reason why it’s on my list of New Year’s resolutions and one I’m very serious about. I know there are countless ways I could be recycling everyday and it’s important to me because it’s a practice I want to pass down to my children. I might not be able to get to ‘zero waste’ status but at this point anything I do would be so much better than the nothing that I’m doing now.
Tips to Accomplish Your Goals
- Make a plan. Do you want to wake up before the kids? Write out exactly what you want to do within that extra hour so you are motivated to get out of bed in the morning.
- Break up your New Year’s resolutions into micro-goals. For example, try implementing one new goal for every month of the year. 30 days leaves you plenty of time to make whatever needs to happen, happen and doesn’t leave you feeling overwhelmed with all the change.
- Start again, and again, and all over again! Did you lose that streak of maintaining your new habit? It happens to the best of us, instead of giving up just try again. That’s the secret sauce to success with anything in life.
That’s it for now friends, if you have long given up on making New Year’s resolutions I hope my list of simple but meaningful ideas has ignited a spark in your soul to make some New Year’s resolutions of your own.
Until next time, Jess <3
Check out my last post here!
This is inspiring!