Y’all know by now I’m a big New Year’s resolutions gal. I’m not always 100% successful with them, but at least setting them has helped me with things like drinking more water and reading books! See my 2020 and 2021 resolutions results here.
Many people dislike the idea of New Year’s resolutions and think they have to be lofty, stretch goals, so they don’t make them because they’re afraid of failure. For me, it’s about thinking ahead and setting some intentional goals for the year, dare I say SMART goals?
My resolutions this year feel even more casual and are basically habits I want to add to my daily/weekly/monthly routines. In 2021, I read Atomic Habits by James Clear and it’s all about breaking down your bigger goals into smaller, actionable steps. Check out my 2021 book reviews blog post for my other 5-star picks!
1. Make my bed every day
I wish I didn’t have to make this a resolution, but I honestly don’t do this every day, so I’m including it in my resolutions to make it part of my daily routine again.
2. Floss every day
I’m going to stop lying to my dentist!! From past years of resolutions, I know that daily goals are the hardest, but I feel like these two should be doable.
3. Journal twice a week
In college, my roommate and I journaled daily for a few months in our sophomore year, and I want to get back into it. My handwriting also sucks, so I feel like this will definitely help. I bought a couple of pretty journals and am excited to fill them up!
4. Exercise four times a week
If we’ve learned anything the past few years, it’s that your health is your wealth. I’ve definitely gotten out of shape and I’ll need to start training for my half marathon that was rescheduled from 2019 to September 2022.
5. Get through 200 pages of Spanish by the end of the year
Last year, one of my resolutions was to spend 10 minutes learning Spanish on Duolingo, but that conflicted with my other goal of spending less time on my phone. For some reason it just occurred to me recently that I could learn Spanish with a good old-fashioned textbook, so I’m buying the Spanish for Dummies workbook and will be using that this year.
6. Learn to code
Keeping this one vague because I honestly don’t know what qualifies as success in coding and it sounds kind of hard? My co-worker and I both want to learn to code, so we are going to learn the different languages (JavaScript, HTML, Python, etc.) on Sololearn.com and keep each other accountable. There’s a Pro subscription, but there’s also a ton of free education. I’ve already started Java on Sololearn, and I think the Khan Academy coding videos will also be helpful.
7. Have a vegetarian diet when at home
I think vegan would be the eventual goal, but I’m not going to get ahead of myself. I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts about climate change and the environment, and one of the easiest ways to decrease your carbon footprint is to eat less meat. I also just watched The Game Changers documentary on Netflix, which probably doesn’t tell the whole story, but it was enough to make me think about my health and further push me to stop eating so many animal products. I really like eating salads and fruits and veggies, so I think that already puts me in a good starting position. However, my favorite food is pepperoni pizza, and I’m a huge fan of ice cream. I won’t be buying any meat from the grocery store, but I’m allowing myself to eat it if I’m at a restaurant, where the meat will likely be of higher quality anyway. I never buy ice cream from the grocery store because I have no self-control, so when I eat it, I’m paying like $7 for a scoop at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams (half scoop Brambleberry Crisp, half scoop Brown Butter Almond Brittle). Stay tuned for a blog post where I try out different vegan cheeses!
8. Try one new recipe a month
I don’t like cooking, but my office did a gift exchange and I got this Minimalist Baker’s Everyday Cooking book (Amazon affiliate link) with 101 vegetarian recipes that look simple, healthy and delicious. I’ve also already researched some easy recipes, read through them to make sure they don’t ask for random ingredients I don’t like or wouldn’t buy, or appliances I don’t have. I’ve created this Pinterest board to refer to for later.
9. Spend under 4 hours a day on my phone
A repeat resolution from last year. If I think about it, even being on my phone for 4 hours sounds insane when I’m awake for 16 hours a day. I don’t want to be on my phone for a quarter of my day! I have plenty of other things I should be doing, like all these other resolutions.
Measuring progress has really motivated and helped me stay focused. I’ve been using the Done app on my phone to keep track of my progress on my goals/resolutions since 2019. It costs like $7 in the Apple App Store, but there are several other free ones!
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2021 Resolutions Results
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