New Year’s Eve has come and gone, and with its passing arrived January. All our social media news feeds have been filled with “New Year, New Me” posts, people’s New Year’s resolutions, 2024 action plans, planned milestones and goals for the past 11 days, and craze is only now slowly dying down. If you’re still looking for inspiration, however, I might just have the thing for you.
In reality, I’m rather torn about New Year’s resolutions. I do believe that if we want to implement real, lasting changes in our lives, we need to build up to them gradually by creating habits that bring us closer to our objectives. I’m quite sceptical about resolutions that represent a drastic (and often unattainable) change – especially because they rarely happen. It is much more likely that someone who’s not been physically active for the past decade will go for a15-minute run twice a week than that they will run the marathon before the new year is over. Big ambitious goals sound great and look fantastic on social media – but they often lead to the abandonment of the goal altogether. Moreover, I don’t think that the change of the calendar year has any real influence on the possibility to achieve our goals. If changes are needed and wanted in our lives, we can start working on them at any given moment, whether it’s the 1st of January or the 17th of May. Actually, the sooner we start actively contributing to a new habit or goal, the better. At the end of the day, the best time to change was yesterday; the second-best is today. So, instead of putting off that new habit or that new hobby till the new year, why not start working towards it straight away?
Having said that, New Year’s Eve does seem to have a magical effect. It may be a perfect moment to reflect on the year behind us and plan for the one ahead of us. There is something ceremonial about starting off the new year clean, with fresh ideas and the motivation of “anything is possible”. We are, after all, creatures with a soft spot for rituals – and if that helps people sticking to their plans to make their own goals come true, I’m all for it. And does indeed work – at least for a while. January statistics usually spike, whether it’s regarding gym memberships, Duolingo accounts, hypnosis tapes to quit smoking or gratitude journals. Of course, the sudden increase dies down, and come mid-February, the majority will have abandoned their resolutions – but not everyone. There are indeed people who are determined and find a way to stick with their new routine, build those habits they want and start seeing the changes they desire. That’s what really inspires me: those who are committed and persevere through difficulties to achieve what they had set out to do at the end of December.
What, then, would be the perfect New Year’s resolution that I mention in the title? Is it a super easy diet that will help you lose weight? Does it have to do with some trick to get promoted at work AND spend more time with family simultaneously? Or maybe it’s a simple but thorough guide to living a healthier, more balanced life free of addictions and full of mindful moments? Unfortunately, none of these – although it was nice to think, even if only for a second, that solutions could be that simple. No, dear reader, I don’t pretend to know such secrets of the universe. I am but a mere mortal and have no idea what I’m doing most of the time – and many other young adults admit feeling the same way. It’s a little like that meme when you’re witnessing a difficult situation, so you look around to find an adult – to realize you’re one as well, and yet have no idea how to handle the problem at hand! Sadly, life does not come with easy-to-follow, clear guidebooks about getting ahead at work, losing weight, kicking a bad habit or improving family ties. There’s no blueprint that we can read and apply to our lives with zero modifications.
But then again, maybe that’s not a problem, not really. Sure, it would be nice to have a quick fix for the occasional problem, but it wouldn’t help us life a content and carefree life. When we wish for easy solutions, namely, we forget one thing: that we grow when we face adversity. It’s hard to learn and get better at, well, life, if the answers are either already there or can be found extremely easily. Only when we go through tough times and struggle to solve our issues do we really find our path and ourselves – and a way we can cope with future problems when they arise, because they will arise. So, yes, losing 15 kilos while eating pizza sounds like a dream, until we suddenly become aware that our relationship with food will never be healthy as long as we don’t learn how to find what works best for us in terms of diet and exercise. Being rid of our phone addiction with a magic spell seems wonderful – till we recognize that we need to dig deeper to understand our problems to begin with to avoid substituting one addiction with another. But I digress… Or do I?
Even though I can’t offer any magic solutions to all your problems, nor do I have a list of perfect resolutions to fit each and every one of you individually, I believe I do have something valuable to share. Whatever you decide to do in 2024, whatever goals you set, I suggest you add what I think is the single best New Year’s resolution you can ever have: to keep growing. No, I don’t mean a specific type of growth – I suggest all-encompassing growth. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably an adult with enough life experience to know what your life may be lacking or have an excess off, so I don’t need to give you exact directions on your specific goals. Only you can know which particular changes you desire in your life that will help you be healthier, happier and of more service to yourself and to the people around you. Having said that, I do believe that at least some if not all of your goals (and mine) should fall under the umbrella term of “growth”. It can be physical, like gaining more flexibility or running a race; emotional, such as a better grasp on your own feelings and traumas to handle your personal relationships better; mental, to learn a new skill or improve your knowledge in a specific field; spiritual, to find ways to live a more grounded and present-based life; and the list goes on, with social, environmental, financial and other aspects of growth.
To me, development is crucial – but I define what that is. My progress will look vastly different from that of others. For some, for instance, my goal of running a 10K race will appear to be an easy task undeserving of the title “goal”; for others, it will be completely irrelevant for their growth journey; for others again, it will seem like an insurmountable challenge, at least for the time being. It’s not even the size of the objective that matters, as long as it’s challenging but attainable: what really counts is what it means to you and to your life. I am a big supporter or moving forward, regardless of how big or small the steps we take to do so are. Growing as a person can come in many shapes and sizes, such as:
- Being able to work more efficiently and finally getting that dream job thanks to a micro-degree;
- Becoming a kinder and more insightful human being to serve our family, friends and community;
- Acting in a more environmentally conscious way to take care of our planet;
- Spending more wisely to provide for a more stable future for ourselves and our family;
- Feeling happier and more experienced due to the many amazing trips we’ve taken;
- Finding true joy after learning a hobby we never thought we’d be interested in and connecting with like-minded people.
At the end of the day, we are all on a different learning curve and we are walking our own paths while continuously (re)inventing them – so we needn’t worry about how our goals compare to those of others. I am convinced, however, that as long as we focus on improving our lives little by little, we are on the right track.
Living abroad as a millennial 