Offbeat New Years Resolutions (for the late starters and offbeat readers)

When I was young, each New Year my Dad would gather the family around the table and pull out a big binder. He’d pass out worksheets with bubbled sections entitled “Spiritual, Physical, Emotional, Financial and Personal” and so on. He’d help us set goals for ourselves for the next year and give us a week to think about them. In a week’s time we’d reconvene and outline our detailed steps to achieve those goals in the next 365 days. Don’t forget last years goals, we’d discuss how those went for the past year too.

In a way I both dreaded and looked forward to the the last week of the year. I’d start thinking about these goals in October and regretting not having stuck to them. I became a pro at throwing together 2 months of work into the goals and producing them half proudly at the end of the year. It always seemed like I bit off more than I could chew each January, and December brought disappointment.

In recent years, being on my own, I’ve been more excited about doing them myself. Now that I’m in charge of everything it’s a lot easier to dictate what I want to focus on. In recent years I’ve been more successful in accomplishing these goals (for the most part!)

I avoid calling them New Year’s Resolutions because barely anyone keeps those, and hardly ever are they brought up again past March. Let’s be honest guys.

Below are a few (54!) ideas you can use to kick-start your year!

• Things to add to your morning routine
• Start a bullet journal
• Movies you want to see
• Assign a certain amount of time every so often to unplug
• Pick a self health day each week
• Pick a day every so often to reconnect with friends
• Listen to the top ten songs of a specific decade to broaden your horizons
• Money saving plans
• X number of books read
• Track your show binges
•  Track your spend/splurge ratio
• Ladies- a period tracker is handy
• Take more time for yourself
• Start a new job
• Move to a new town
• Get a pet
• Learn a new language
• Start a collection
• Try the minimalist lifestyle
• Try one new cool thing a month
• Try a new foreign breakfast
• Sign up for a snack crate or other specialty crate
• Plan a vacation (day/ week/ holiday)
• Hit all the day trip destinations in a radius of you
• Bake a new confection each month
• Try a new art fad
• Nail down a cleaning schedule
• Get new/ more plants
• Downsize each month
• Begin hosting a regular girls night/ party/ get together at your home
• Journal prompts of self discovery for a week/month/ year
• Perfect your passions!!
• Nail down a look
• Watch some movies outside of your usual genre
• Pick a new era of history to obsess over for a year
• Follow an unusual hashtag
• Learn about a little known country
• Take a class on one obscure thing
• Learn a new skill (mend a button/ change a tire/patch clothes)
• Take a dance class
• Have the pictures you take of a vacation or event printed into booklet form
• Pick a song you can absolutely NAIL
• Pick a virtue you need to practice. (I know we all have one that needs more attention than the others)
• Perfect a 15 minute morning make up and hair routine
• Make a new friend(s)
• Join a local service club, (The National Exchange Club can always use you in the fight against Child Abuse)  Whoops, how did that get there?
• Try a new kind of social media
• Compile and read a list of classic literature
• Go to a symphony concert and write about what the music inspires you to feel
• Explore the local arts and culture
• Assign yourself a word for the year
• Have a quote for the month/ week/year
• Dedicate yourself to writing more thank you cards
• Make a creative space in your home

Creating goals gives purpose and direction. I can promise you it fights the feelings at the end of the month or year of “Damn, what HAVE I accomplished over the last month/year?”

I was a little down on myself, thinking the same of my 2018 until I sat down and looked over my photos and journals. I did so much! I feel so proud of myself.

• I finished editing a book
• I started this blog
• I built a decent following for The Mild Millennial
• I flew across the country to present to a National Symposium on Child Abuse Prevention and teach nonprofit members how to use social media for their groups
• I explored Lake Tahoe alone.
• I made a few new friends.
• I took a break from some of the things that exhausted me
• I became a contributing writer!
• I got to see my sister get married!
• I had the perfect blind date
• I “put myself out there” in the dating world
• I got to visit my family more often
• I took numerous training courses in my field
• I’ve built a decent audience as an author
• I’ve gained confidence in sharing my work
• I’ve found new ways to look at the world
• I became President-elect of a local service club
• I ran a successful volunteer season for local projects
• I nailed down two writing jobs locally

Today is a blank page. What are your goals and resolutions for 2019?

Go out there and smash a few incredible things this year- you owe it to yourself. It’s never too late to start!!

Love&Hugs

The Mild Millennial