Maybe let's just make a resolution for the day

I have often written about new year’s resolutions and how to craft them . This advice centered around making things happen – how to design the perfect plan for the new year and having the consistency and perseverance to make it happen. Total Type A stuff. Then I started to shift the new year resolution advice into doing the inner work to ensure we didn’t lose what we gained . For many of us, it is not accomplishing that is the issue, but the self-sabotage that happens just before or after we get what we want. If we don’t believe we deserve what we want or have old beliefs that good things can’t happen to us, no matter how hard we try, we never truly keep what we want.

On the verge of 2020, I wrote of the importance of truly knowing what you want. This dug deeper into our belief systems and desires. How many of our previous resolutions were based on societal pressure or outside beliefs? When looking at what we want, are we really looking at what would make us happy or are we going toward what others have told us will make us happy?

Then 2020 happened.

At the end of that infamous year, I didn’t write about resolutions because it felt like I no longer had control over my life. Did any of your 2020 resolutions come true? Did you make new friends? Did you travel more? Did you advance in your career? Did you lose 20 pounds? No, for most of us 2020 sent us into survival mode. My posts at the end of 2020 did not encourage resolutions, but instead encouraged making little changes toward a better world , knowing and embracing your unique gift and purpose in life , how to stay positive and raise the vibration for yourself and others , and how to just survive when the whole world seems to be in chaos.

As I enter 2022, again I am bypassing the new year’s resolutions post. I have no expectations, no annual goals. My plan instead is to set a goal for each day. How do I want to be? Today I might focus on gratitude. Tomorrow I might focus on open-mindedness or acceptance. The day after maybe I’ll be inspired to make creativity the goal of the day. Every morning I will wake up and ask how I can be of service to myself and other. Throughout the day, I will actively make choices for my own self-care and for the well-being of others. This is not a vision board concept of how I want my ultimate life to be; this is not about my destination. This is a snapshot of this day, this moment, and asking if I am being the best me I can be; this is about making the most of the journey .

By being in the moment, by focusing on making this single day as perfect and joyous as possible, I become freed from the anger, resentment, and regrets of the past. I become freed from the worries of the future my brain likes to spiral into. I become freed from my own expectations of what I should be accomplishing. Instead, I will learn to 100% be in this specific moment. Perhaps today I will have a lot of energy and will write the next chapter of my book. Perhaps today I will feel the drain on a 50+ year old body and need to give myself more rest. Perhaps today I will open my mind to learn something new.?Perhaps today I will share an adventure with my puppy who is the queen of living in the moment.

I guess I do have a resolution for 2022. That resolution is to turn over my life to a higher power and to just go along for the ride. My goal is to fully surrender to something that better knows what is good for me and others, that other thing that is truly in control of my life and its outcome. And I am hopeful. Every time I take the lead, every time I try to force what I think I want the result to be, it ends in unhappiness for me and those around me, whether I gain what I want or not. I am excited to take a backseat in my own life and see where I am driven. My only responsibility is to do as directed to the best of my ability in each moment.

Wishing you and yours good health and emotional well-being in the new year.