My New Year's Resolution was to ask people in February if they'd kept their New Year's Resolution.
Honest.
Okay, I'm lying. It wasn't my New Year's Resolution.
But I am curious, and would subsequently like to pose the question: did you have a New Year's Resolution, and if so, have you achieved it, or are you still in the process of achieving it/them?
There are quite a few obvious ones we can all count on seeing and hearing each and every year:
Lose weight
Get fit
Kick bad habit/s
Get out of your proverbial comfort zone
Travel more
Worry less
Save money
I didn't make any. Well, one actually. It wasn't any of the aforementioned ones (although equally as hard to keep and achieve) and so far so good on that so thanks for asking.
I didn't want to write a pompous "10 ways to achieve your goals" or "the benefits of travelling", or {insert motivational post for the new year here}.
We all know the benefits of travelling and we mostly know what steps are required to achieve our goals.
But what about our environments? We don't achieve our goals alone. There are so many environmental factors that contribute to our successes, namely; those we choose to call friends and have in our daily circle of energy.
Have you told anyone about your resolution/s yet? I bet if you have, he/she would've had an opinion about it.
Pay attention to whether that opinion was constructive, positive, supportive, kind.
Was it motivating?
Was it food for thought?
Did it build on your initial idea?
Or was it malicious, jealous, insecure and un-constructive?
If it's the latter, then a congratulations is in order because you just met your new resolution
- rid yourself of energy suckers.
This world is a noisy place. 99.9% of that noise is probably irrelevant to you personally.
Don't let energy suckers distract you from that 0.01% that's right for you.
So in the spirit of the new year and making it to February with my resolution, here are a few life hacks (not resolutions) that could possibly help you maintain or change the environment you need to achieve your resolution/s.
1. If you work in an office, go and spend some time outside, maybe in the country even (perhaps even carrying something heavy while dodging things that could possibly kill you) - it's character building I was told. Vice versa if you work outside, volunteer at your local hospital or help count votes during an election ... I'm quite certain the United States has a place for you ...).
2. Drop time with people who don't treat you well.
3. Spend that extra time doing something you've never done before with people you've never met before.
4. Double the time you spend alone.
5. Read more
6. Take times of great stress and disorder as expected. Your stride will get longer and you will get stronger. Eventually.
To improve is to change.
To perfect is to change often.
Let me know how you go.