Every day can be your January 1st
Ana Karen Garza CONTRIBUTOR
Photo: Ana Karen Garza / THE MIKE.
Before anything else, you welcomed in this new year with a breath of air. Something so obvious as breathing may have not even crossed your mind the moment the minute hand of clocks everywhere returned back to their origin. The 2018 mindset is as obvious as breathing, but also as disregarded as that first breath you took the morning of January 1st.
The thing to understand is that the goals you set forward for this year have to be made by you, not by society. Goals set out by society are too generic and thus unachievable. They halt any possible guidance about where to begin. However, starting over can also feel demanding. You set yourself with unrealistic expectations and you beat yourself up for not continuing with them post January. The key to New Year’s resolutions is to not follow by with a list but rather, a mindset — your 2018 mindset.
A list becomes too tedious, whereas a mindset becomes a manifestation of established beliefs and affirmations. Through converting your goals into affirmations, such as “I am hardworking” rather than “I will be hardworking”, they will eventually transform into the mindset that you want to live by. Make the 2018 mindset a reminder of being fully active with your goals whether they range from adapting a proper sleep schedule to stepping foot outside of your comfort zone.
New Year’s resolutions are not solely assigned to January. Just like time is a constructed concept, your goals can be reconstructed independent of the date on your calendar. If you come across a roadblock you do not need to wait until the following year, or the following “blank slate” to restart. By isolating new year’s resolutions to January, you actually end up isolating yourself from consistent growth. The goals you set out for yourself are meant to be consistent.
The 2018 mindset also requires one to take a step back and question the purpose of New Year resolutions as a whole. And what is their purpose? New Year’s resolutions present us with opportunities to grow. Trust me when I say that it will be evident how passionate and serious you truly are about adapting your goals when a challenge disrupts your path; for it is the type of choices and attitudes you set forward that will determine your mindset. And here is the thing, there will always be some sort of roadblock in your way, whether it is within or beyond your control. The simple solution is to befriend the challenges that come in the way of achieving your goals. Befriend the roadblock and learn from it because rock bottom can too act as a foundation for growth.
So, if you find yourself slowly giving up on your new year resolutions, remember that you can start fresh over and over again, heck we’ve been doing it for years.
