Hey Lovelies,
I love the start of every new year. I am one of the many who would usually not get sad after every Christmas holiday, for instance. I may have mixed feelings, yes, but sadness definitely doesn’t make the list.
This year though, I found myself faced with a weird feeling. I will choose not to call it sadness, (because I’m always filled with extreme gratitude to even allow sadness get the better part of me), but you should be the judge at the end of this post. I need a name for this feeling…
I know that the ‘post – holiday’ blues is real. I know this because I felt something a bit similar, not too long ago. It may seem weird to some of my loved ones who know me well, because, it hardly ever happens to me. But to you my beautiful readers, I will let you know why and how it all happened.
I promise!
Ok at this point I may have lost count of the number of promises I’ve made to you all in the past. But this is a new year, and with new year comes new goals. Keeping my promises just has to be one of them.
To a lot of people, the New Year season is seen as a time to take stock and reflect on the past year, which can be difficult if you feel that you haven’t achieved everything or most of the things you wanted to. – Here goes my answer. Now, I kept this promise.
But really, who else feels this way, or am I alone?
This tendency to annually measure our success and the pressure to set new goals canoften be upsetting and stressful. Reinventing yourself in the new year may seem like a positive thing to do, (it actually is) but it may be negatively affecting your mental health.
How?, one may ask .
Because it often involves focusing on our flaws or insecurities. For example, we tend to create goals based on negative thoughts, such as ‘I am overweight’ rather than ‘I want to be healthier’.
Now, what can you do?
“My advice would be to ditch the big, abstract resolutions, and aim instead to complete some tiny goals,” says Chambers.
Using tiny goals, you can make small changes that are sustainable, simple and realistic. This makes it easier to build them into routines, stay consistent, and even form them into a habit.”
So instead of it being a new year goal, which in itself creates pressure, focusing on a day at a time, feels more doable. That way, even if you miss a day, you can always try again the next day, without feeling like the whole year is a complete failure.
So, what do I do at the beginning of every new year?
I make smaller monthly goals that help me reach my overall yearly goal at the end.
I create one new habit to add to my former list of habits. In addition to journaling which mysteriously failed me at some point towards the end of last year ( deets in another post), I have added daily brain dumps. So far, it has helped me to feel less tense and anxious when I’m overwhelmed.
And yes, I QUIT. I ensure that I quit at least one habit that wasn’t productive for me in the previous year. This year, I have chosen to quit the habit of not exercising enough. After this post, I’m going for a walk around my estate. No more procrastination! But no, I’m not making any promise on this one yet. Estate seems far-fetched though. *Thinking out loud* Let’s start with compound and see how this goes.
What is that ONE thing you love to do at the start of every year? Please do share!
P.S.- Back to the question I asked at the beginning of this post? What do you call that feeling you get when you have some form of regret for not having achieved all or most of what you wanted to within a period of time?
Nostalgia?
Maybe, but one thing I know for sure, it’s definitely not sadness.
XOXO
Yours Truly
Nikimandi.
