New Year Goals and Designing My Life

My approach toward New Year resolutions is to just pause, think about things I want to accomplish or do in my life, or stop doing for that matter, and make a plan. It’s less about making resolutions than focusing my energy toward goals I’d like to achieve and living a life I’ll love. I think of it as designing my life and using a new year to motivate me to consider and organize my priorities. 

Articles online say people fail their New Year’s resolutions within a very short time into the New Year. I’d rather commit to change and effort than to a specific task-based resolution that isn’t always achievable when health issues or life obligations interfere. It’s also easy to get sidetracked. If I have a plan and a mechanism for remembering what I’d like to accomplish, I’m more likely to succeed.

This approach was very successful for me last year when I signed up for a marathon. I stretched a 20 week training plan to 36 weeks. It allowed for plenty of setbacks without the pressure of failing. It also helped keep it fun. See my post, “Adapting to My Limitations and Doing a Marathon Anyway.”

Considering my MS disease progression will likely include mobility issues in the future, I prioritize being active. I think about things I want to do in my lifetime that I will enjoy and that I may not be able to do if I lose my mobility. My goal is to try to do them sooner than later. If I don’t do some of these things, it won’t ruin me. But I want to be conscious of them and incorporate them into my life now if possible. I enjoy planning and doing them now, and I will enjoy them in the future while reminiscing about them. 

None of the changes I want to make are done in the first month of a new year. Instead, my intention is to prepare. I’m not setting up resolutions to do things perfectly all year long. I’m creating a plan with routines to make progress toward living a life I love while enjoying my life as it is today.