The 5 Resolutions I'm Glad I Stuck to in 2017
With another new year almost upon us, it's now more than ever that we tend to find ourselves filled with goals and aspirations for the year to come. While part of this we undoubtedly use counterproductively to justify certain unhealthy decisions and behaviours between now and the stroke of midnight on January 1st, the overlying intention is still positive.
We all want to improve our lives in a number of facets, even if our track record when it comes to sticking to these annual resolutions is quite poor.
As someone who has always prided myself in my ability to set and go after goals, especially since my mid-twenties, it should come as no surprise that I laid out a number of resolutions (20 to be exact) for 2017 around this time last year. - READ THEM ALL HERE
While I can't say that now, a near full calendar year later that I succeeded at all of these, I can say that I did better than December 2016 Mark DeNicola probably anticipated. But of all of the resolutions I'm able to standby relatively well, here are the 5 in particular that I am beyond grateful to have accomplished, and therefore highly recommend to you for 2018, in both video and written form:
1. I STOPPED RUNNING FROM MY PROBLEMS
We all have problems, and boy oh boy did December 2016 me have some doozies, most of which he was irrationally afraid of. While I can't say that choosing to address them was always an easy thing to do, I can say that the relief that came shortly after it was monumentally better than the torment my mind was putting me through prior to.
Remind yourself of two things: (1) 99% of what your mind has created surrounding the issue will not take place, (2) it won't become any easier to address in time. So bite the bullet and set yourself free from the fear these problems are both consciously and unconsciously inflicting upon you.
2. I INVESTED IN MY FUTURE
I know the statement is quite cliché, but I couldn't think of another way to word it effectively. Over the course of 2017 I properly launched my own business, and rather than letting either frugality or the belief that I'm not worthy dictate my course of action, I opted to do what I knew would be best for me and my company.
The end result? My company is leaps and bounds ahead of where it would have been had I not made certain decisions, and I am able to accomplish much more thanks to the optimization many of my "investments" enabled. I'm not suggesting you spend completely out of your means, but that you do take a bigger picture approach to some of your financial decision making.
3. I MADE MORE TIME FOR THE PEOPLE I LOVE
I'll admit, this of the five in this list is the one I've struggled with the most, especially in the final three months of the year as things have gotten substantially busier in my life. But that experience has further helped me realize just how integral creating a work/life balance really is since I can feel the taxing effect the imbalance has on me.
We will always have things that we should be doing, and it's important that we make the time to do them to the best of our ability, but not at the expense of the people and things we love the most.
4. I STOPPED OVERTHINKING EVERYTHING
I'm willing to bet that most of you are quite familiar with what life is like functioning with an overactive mind. And while there is a time and place where this comes to be incredibly helpful, I've learned that it's beyond integral that we also learn how to disengage from it when needed.
While tools such as meditation can be wonderful in enabling this ability, a far more immediately practical approach I took in 2017 was to simply force myself to instead take action. Even if the action step was relatively small, the more I did this, the more I realized how much we intuitively know and let our minds cloud.
5. I GOT ENOUGH SLEEP AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE
I know that to some of you getting adequate sleep regularly seems like a pipe dream, but we all -no matter how busy our lives are- have ways in which we can increase the amount of sleep that we get.
As I briefly alluded to earlier, 2017 was undoubtedly the busiest year of my life, but I didn't let that stop me from getting the 7-8 hours of sleep nightly that I function on best. And I'm a firm believer that my dedication to doing so helped to make the year into the wonderfully busy year that it was.
While there will undoubtedly always be exceptions, and there should be, make sure that they are only exceptions to give your body the chance to surprise you with how capable it is when reenergized.
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