Clearly, I am not a fan of new year’s resolutions, but with reason. We spend the end of each year stuffing our faces with mountain loads of food, over-spending and over-cooking and then suddenly on the 1st we want to “fix” it by vowing to never eat chocolate again. Oh please, who are we kidding, we know that lasts exactly 3,7 seconds, and off we go again, repeating the cycle.

As we approach 2021 with great caution (you break it, you buy it) we already find ourselves in February, and most of us are probably saying “last year this time…and then Covid-19 happened.”
If you, like me, are probably one of those individuals, then right now really is the time to re-evaluate how we approach the whole theme (cliché in my opinion) that is a new year’s resolution.

While self-love is vital

While self-love is vital, I find the notion of a new year’s resolution incredibly selfish. Let’s not vow unrealistically to lose 10kg this year or run a marathon (when we can hardly do the school-run in a timely fashion) and let’s think about how we can give back by merely taking it one step at a time.

If you only clean out that one cabinet in your office this year and donate the unwanted books to a library and toss all the excess paper into recycling, then I applaud you. Goal archived. Let’s aid in sustainable living and declutter our lives by setting aside one Saturday this year. Perhaps, like me, you are a total neat freak and follow THE – The Home Edit, on Instagram, religiously and you don’t need to tackle an office file cabinet. If like me, you are an animal lover, volunteer at the shelter and take a lonely rescue dog for a walk. I assure you it will mean way more to him than you can ever imagine. Or, do the unimaginable and take on a long term responsibility (that does not require getting on the scale once a week) and adopt the doggo. If I start making a list of the wonderful things we can do and participate in that serve as new year’s resolutions from a different lens, well, then I’ll be here all day.

Now, get this, if you need to go on a personal weight-loss-health journey, then, by all means, do what you have to do because self-care is equally as important. I would like us to simply rewire how we think by not attaching a personal journey to a new year’s resolution. A personal journey can start whenever you are ready, not because the clock struck 12 on the 31st of December. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected, time is not our friend, and how we will function in the future is changing. Don’t be so hard on yourself. So you spent a bit much over the festive season and probably overdid it with the decorations and food. Let’s take time out to strengthen our family ties, personal relationships, work relationships – though potentially online – and let’s spend less time labelling the things we want to do as “new year’s resolutions.” Bleh.