I’m not sure about you, but I am in love with the new year. I love this time of year so much that I just want to go on and on about it, but… here we are!
For many of us, the new year represents a fresh start. The new year is a new beginning and a great time to make changes we believe will benefit our lives going forward.
Often when we set resolutions, we’re setting goals for what we think we should do, rather than what we actually want to do. That can make it tough to keep them up months down the road.
When we set joyful resolutions that feel good, following through is natural and easy.
1. Resolve to find beauty in your own features this year.
Modern beauty standards are incredibly unforgiving. That’s why we suggest embracing your own beauty standard—and your own beauty.
Over the years, we’ve shared many ways to expand your idea of beauty and find beauty in all sorts of places. Set a goal to try a different method each month until you begin to love yourself as you deserve.
2. Simplify your beauty routine.
When it comes to beauty, you don't have to spend a lot of money, and you don't have to spend all your time. Drop that 10 step skin care advice you received.
We're here to help you simplify your routine and get back to what really matters: feeling good about yourself and being happy with who you are.
It turns out that even when life gets hectic and busy, there's always time for self-care—even if it means just taking an extra second to breathe or smiling at yourself in the mirror when no one's looking.
Self-care doesn't have to be complicated or expensive—it can be as simple as taking 3 minutes each day for your facial gua sha in the morning.
3. Celebrate pleasure instead of success.
If you're anything like me, you've heard this one before: "Enjoy the process." I know, I know—it sounds like a platitude. But hear me out.
We get caught up in tasks and goals, striving for success and accomplishment rather than enjoying the process itself. The truth is that there is no destination—there is only the journey itself! When we forget about this, we lose sight of what’s most important: the joy of living in the present moment.
The problem with our culture is that we're always striving to reach the end goal, instead of appreciating how much fun it can be just to get there. We think we'll be happy when we get the promotion or the big house or the perfect body… but then we find ourselves feeling disconnected from our true desires, because we don't have time for them anymore (or even realize what they are).
But if you shift your focus from the destination to the journey itself—if you start celebrating pleasure instead of success—your life will become so much easier! You'll find yourself loving everything you do, and feeling more connected to your core values and true nature than ever before.
4. Live as if 2024 is not guaranteed.
We all want to be successful. We all want to be happy. We all want to make a difference in the world. It's a universal desire that we should never lose sight of. But there's a problem: when we focus too much on our goals, they can become traps. They can limit our creativity, vision, understanding of what is possible, and understanding of how we can have impact on the world.
I used to set 5-year and 10-year goals. I'd make a plan for what I wanted to accomplish in the next decade, and then I'd try my best to stick to it.
But it never worked out that way. Every year, my horizons would expand, and new things would come into view—things that were never part of my original plan but which became vital parts of my life. When that happened, I always found myself saying: "Wait a minute… why didn't I see this before?"
That's why I stopped setting 5-year and 10-year goals. I've found that it's better to widen my horizon each year and see what things are possible than it is to set a 10-year goal for myself based on today's limited vision of what is possible in 10 years' time.
And when you take this approach? Well then you'll find that every year brings new opportunities—and with them comes even more opportunities for growth!
5. Schedule joyful activities in your calendar!
We're all guilty of it: scheduling our lives as if they were a to-do list. We're constantly looking at our calendars and thinking, "Okay, I need to do this by X day." And then we look at the next day and think, "Okay, how can I fit that in?" And then we look at the day after that and think, "Oh god, I'm so busy. How am I supposed to fit this in?"
This is why so many of us feel like we never have time for anything fun or creative anymore. We've been conditioned to believe that work comes first—that if we don't get it done by the end of the day, it'll never get done—and leisure time is something we deserve only after all of our obligations are complete. But that's not true!
I'm going to let you in on a little secret: You don't have to wait until you've got all your work done before you take some time for yourself—you can actually schedule activities that bring joy and a sense of creative flow into your life even when there's still plenty left on your plate!
