New Year's Goals: 2021 Edition

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2021, the year that NOBODY wants to jinx ;).

While perhaps not a whole lot has changed in the physical world, I like to look at the new year as a fresh start and a fresh perspective. Sure, there are still many, MANY unresolved problems in the world. But maybe we can shift our OWN mentality surrounding them. 2020 taught us resilience; let 2021 teach you love and recovery!

New Year’s Resolutions tend to be somewhat controversial, and I completely understand both sides. Writing intangible, unrealistic goals and expecting your entire life to change with the simple act of writing these goals down? That probably won’t end well. However, choosing small goals that you can implement into your days, weeks, or months, in order to better yourself in a little way? I think that’s manageable!

I consider these to be New Year’s “goals,” and have written a few that I want to share with you. Some are ambitious, some are simple. Some are to be considered each day, where some are entire year long goals. When it comes to creating your own, you can do what’s best for you. If yearlong goals seem like too much, make monthly goals instead! If resolutions just stress you out and almost always lead to you feeling worse, DON’T do them. No harm, no foul.

When it comes to creating my own goals, I like to also have a mantra and priority for the year. This allows me to develop a “mindset” that I achieve all of these goals with. Because at the end of the day, you can achieve anything you put your mind to; but if you do it out of a place of self-hate, it simply isn’t worth it.

So, without further ado, I present to you: my 2021 Goals.

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2021 Mantra: Everything you do, do it with love.

If 2020 taught me anything, it’s that it is EASY to dislike people. People make questionable choices, do things that may hurt your feelings, and ultimately often only think of themselves. Instead of letting that get to me, I’m going to focus on myself and my own goals. I’m going to make sure that I personally do everything with love and kindness in mind, rather than any sort of ill-intentions.

2021 Priorities: Love, Health, and Purpose.

Priorities are what I want to focus on most this year, above my goals or other intentions. When I make day-to-day decisions, I want to keep these three priorities in mind. Is it something that will bring me, or others love? Is it good for my physical or mental health? Does it contribute to my sense of purpose? Purpose is a BIG priority this year, and I’m going to dedicate most of my time towards that!

GOALS

1. Try Something New Each Month

Starting off with a monthly goal…I want to try something new each month. This adds ~spice~ to my life and makes me feel like I’m constantly exploring what the world has to offer. I am not picky when it comes to WHAT I am trying that’s considered new: whether that’s a new coffee drink, a new recipe, a new workout, a new place…doesn’t matter! Just SOMETHING new each month. It’s simple, yet attainable.

2. Continue to Practice Mindful, Intuitive Eating

This is something I dedicated a lot of LAST year to, but who’s to say your new year’s goal can’t be a continuation of last year’s goal! Last year, I focused most on “healing” my relationship with food; this year, I want to focus heavy on the mindful eating and gentle nutrition aspects of intuitive eating.

3. Learn to Like Black Coffee

I understand that this one may seem a bit…odd. It is! I find that a lot of people who I admire, respect, and who are successful…often drink black coffee. And frankly, I feel like if I like black coffee, I have grown up. I by no means want to ONLY drink black coffee, but I want to get to the point where I drink it often, thusly making lattes and oat milk drinks more SPECIAL.

4. Establish an Epic Morning Routine

I use the word epic because it makes me feel powerful. One of my BIG goals is to not go on my phone for an hour after waking up; this is part of my GRAND scheme to spend less time on my phone overall (quarantine did me dirty with that one). I used to tell my friend that I loved when I had the time to have myself “a morning.” In other words, a morning that felt productive and purposeful. My goal is to develop a morning routine that feels productive and fun; this could include things like meditation, journaling, housekeeping, yoga…whatever I find works best after some trial & error!

5. Run a Half Marathon

I saved the most ambitious for last. I put this as my tentative goal; allow me to explain why.

My whole life, I have told myself that I am not a runner. That I can’t do it, that I don’t like it, that I don’t have the stamina, etc. etc. However, I have no proof that that is true. I’m determined to prove my inner critic wrong. A half marathon is ambitious enough that I would feel extremely accomplished, but not as terrifying as a full marathon.

When it comes to ambitious goals like this, they are as realistic as you make them. In other words, if you have a well-thought-out plan, you can achieve anything!

So, my plan for this:

I’m following the Nike Run Club Half Marathon Training Plan. It gives you the tools to run five-days-a-week, but the flexibility to make the plan your own and do it at your own pace. At its fastest, it is a 14-week plan. I’m going to experiment, and will either stick to the plan, OR will take my time with it and implement some extra strength training in between!

Equipment wise, I have run trackers on my phone, I have a good pair of running shoes, and adequate workout clothing. I’m dedicating time as the weeks go by to learn about proper nutrition and hydration, and I am keeping this low-stakes, good vibes. If I EVER feel hatred or criticism towards myself, I’ll stop. Because then this goal isn’t BETTERING me. In other words, good vibes only.

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And that’s it! There are my goals. If I find more specific ones, I often will split those up by month. I find I have to keep YEARLY goals to no more than five, otherwise it’s hard to focus on them all.

What are some of your New Year’s Goals? How do you feel about them? Let me know!