Moving beyond New Year’s Resolutions in 2016

In a new year, there’s a lot of talk about new beginnings, making goals, and setting up resolutions. It sounds like such a good idea every January. But it all becomes such a dreaded task every year to try to improve yourself! But why should it be a chore to learn, grow and try new things?

I’m looking forward to making the most of my 2016 by living life with intention, letting myself make mistakes, and getting out of my comfort zone. It may sound like resolutions but the difference is that this is about making choices that will go beyond just this year to make myself a healthier, happier and better person for the rest of my life. While some actions may take only a few weeks and some may take many months, I think it’s important to continually look ahead to the next step.

So what is it that I want to accomplish exactly? I’m not talking about rocket science, but setting up tangible steps to work towards, maybe fail and have to dust myself off. I don’t expect to land every single goal on the first try, but vow to never give up and to always keep trying. So these are more than just my New Year’s resolutions – they are my life resolutions.

Health and Wellness
Getting fit is a big part of my health and wellness, but what’s even more important to me is staying fit. I have struggled with my weight my whole entire life, but I’ve been successful the last seven years in keeping most of my weight loss off. But it hasn’t been the easiest journey as temptations come in all shapes and sizes. For my personal fitness, I am going to:

• Workout two times a week. I hate working out but this is a goal that I know is realistic and will allow me to maintain my fitness level. There are really no excuses to not fit in two workouts.
• Walk to and from the C-train every workday. This guarantees me tons of steps and gets me enjoying some fresh air every day.
• Wear my Jawbone fitness tracker everyday – it will help me keep track of my progress as I log my workouts, steps and sleep on a daily basis.
• Get some more sleep! As a night owl, this will probably be the hardest thing to achieve. But I love sleep so I look forward to getting some more.

Life skills
No one ever told me how important home economics would be for, you know, living. While the 7^th grade me didn’t realize that domestic skills would come in handy, the (mostly) adult me today now knows it is necessary to (re)learn the basics.

• Sign up for sewing and cooking classes! I need some refresher courses to get the fundamentals down again to learn these basic life skills.
• Experiment with new foods and recipes – I always cook the same meals over and over so I need to mix it up. This may mean buying a new vegetable I’ve never tried like rutabaga. Or it could mean cooking food in a new way like julienne pickled golden beets.
• Maintain and tune-up my own bike. I bought all the tools from MEC – now I just have to use them!

Live in the moment

I am a smartphone addict. Being a blogger means I live a pretty digital lifestyle, but that doesn’t make up for real-life interactions and experiences. I want to live more presently with the people I love – and that means not being rude by being on my phone all the time.

• Put the phone away in social settings (the boyfriend will be so happy!).  I’ll need to learn a happy medium for when its necessary to look at my apps and when I just need to let it go.

Philanthropy
Giving back to the community is something that always makes me feel good and happy! I know that I am very fortunate and privileged to have all that I do in my life. Being able to help others especially in these tough economic times is necessary. I always like to remind myself there is always someone worse off than me and I can be the difference to help lend a helping hand.

• Donate one percent of my net income with regularly monthly donations. I’ll be looking to support different Calgary charities to help them get a financial boost.

So will I finish all these goals in 2016? Maybe, maybe not. But most of these resolutions are things that I want to do for the rest of my life – so I never want to be done with them. And that’s ok with me.

What life resolutions do you plan on working on? Let me know in the comments below or tweet me at @heyseto.