Happy New Year! It's finally 2016!
In the past few weeks, I've stumbled upon a lot of articles that talk about "New Year's resolutions," and many of them say that you shouldn't have your same old list:
1. Lose weight
2. Get a 4.0 GPA
3. Save money
And while I, myself, could really use a massage, some hard apple cider, and a check for $300,000 right about now, I also believe in straying away from the typical list of accomplishments you wish to conquer in the new year – as we should start thinking about what happens when we do those things. How do you feel when you step on the scale and see that you've reached your goal weight? What does it feel like when you get to an exam and you know the answer to every single question (what a time to be alive)? How do you feel when you can walk in a store, buy only what you need, and leave with enough money to put into a savings account later?
Time and time again, I've talked about feelings, because, whether you express them outwardly or not, they are very real, and it's time that we start making decisions based on our own intuitions and emotions, rather than what we can cross off of a list to show the world what we did during the last 365 days. I find myself making more and more choices that affect the way that I view life and its entirety, and changing my mindset is one of the biggest resolutions I've had since I started making these lists so many years ago.
So, for you, I've compiled a list of things that I have put on my own resolution list, and I encourage you to make this sort of list for yourself, because at the end of 2016, you will be a changed for the better.
2016 New Years "Resolutions" (or Feelings)
1. Know the answer to the majority of test questions, and be able to adequately support them.
2. Have an educated debate or conversation in which I acknowledge the counterargument, but also retain my opinions without putting someone down for theirs.
3. Wake up refreshed (seems trivial, but is actually amazing).
4. Walk into Urban Outfitters (or any store for that matter) and leave without emptying my wallet (much harder than you think).
5. Express my admiration to someone who embodies the same values I do.
6. Tell people that I've been thinking about them as soon as the thought pops into my head.
7. Stay up late with friends during a movie marathon where we don't actually watch the movie and discuss big life topics.
8. Play in the rain and enjoy the way it feels, rather than worrying about getting wet.
9. Help someone through a difficult time and offer non-biased advice that they can easily follow.
10. Cook a spontaneous dinner without a recipe.
11. Finish three classic novels.
12. Finish a project way before it's due.
13. Watch a sunrise and sunset on the same day.
14. Learn a lesson the hard way.
15. Motivate myself out of a rut, whether it be exercising, practicing, or studying.
16. Try a new type of pancake every week (I'm really excited about this one).
And I will continue to add on to this list, making mental notes of when I "accomplish" these sorts of things. I find that these sorts of resolutions don't necessarily have a goal, but rather make me experience certain parts of life that I find necessary to consider a life fully lived. This in no way means that your list of things you want to do in 2016 has to be structured this way, or that your list is not a "real resolution list" because it is!
New Year's is a time when you can start fresh and truly try and reinvent yourself (which was my entire motto during my formative middle school years), and I think that if you can start to make changes in your life such as these, you'll start to appreciate more of what you do and how you live. It's easy to get down on yourself at the end of the year when you haven't reached your goal weight, or didn't get as high of a GPA as you wanted, or ended up without a single penny in the savings account, but with this sort of list, you can safely put off those experiences for next year, and it isn't considered a failure; rather, you weren't ready for those parts of life to hit you.
I wish you all the very best start to the new year, as well as the new semester, and hope that you all treat yourselves right!
