Some Thoughts on New Year Resolutions | AD

Post written in collaboration with Monsoon. Let’s make 2019 the year for wearing party dresses every day of the week.

Love them or hate them, we’re at that time of year when everyone is thinking and talking about New Years resolutions.

And if Instagram is anything to go by, it would seem that people either belong in the “I’m just perfect as I am, thank you very much”, or in the “I can’t wait to get started on my new plans” camp.

I happen to think you can be in both.

One of the brilliant things about new years resolutions is that they can be anything you make them. So, if you feel like 2019 is the year to be a little kinder to yourself, then hell, make your new years resolution something like “I will make more time for long walks and bubble baths”.

I happen to love the idea of setting more challenging resolutions for the new year. The feeling of a clean slate makes me feel like I can aim high and go for all the things that I may not have dreamed or perhaps worked hard enough for, in the previous year.

And, yes, it’s true that you don’t need a new year to do all these things, and if you dig into research on the subject you’ll find that only 1 in 10 people actually stick to their resolutions. But, I really don’t think there’s any harm in trying!

After all, there’s nothing to say that you or I, can’t be that 1 in 10.

If we’re going to give ourselves the best shot at being in that elusive 10% club, then perhaps we should focus less on changing ourselves and more on changing the ways in which we set our goals.

Instead of using all our energy beating ourselves up for not being able to stick to goals that were never right for us in the first place, we could spend our time more wisely on setting the right goals for us, as individuals.

I have been ploughing my way through an ever growing pile of self help books lately (it’s a guilty pleasure, don’t judge) and the recurring theme has been that if you really want to change the your habits and your way of life, then you need to put the work in.

It’s all about taking the time to understand what makes you who you are and what motivates you.

If this is something that interests you, then I really recommend that you take the Gretchin Rubins personality test. Although I’m not sure I agree with everything this test suggests, it definitely provides some helpful insights.

According to this test, I have rebel tendencies, which (as the name suggests) means that sticking to resolutions could be even trickier for someone like me. Often, the very act of setting myself a goal can make me resist taking that action even more than it did before.

For example, in the last year, I have repeatedly set myself the goal of writing a weekly blog post. Have I stuck to this?

Of course not.

But, could setting a goal of aiming to increase my personal sense of achievement and earnings in 2019 be more successful? I think so.

Committing to writing more blog posts, taking more photographs and being consistent, will undoubtedly be part of achieving that goal. But it sounds a whole lot sexier and like something I might actually want to do, when I frame my goals with the benefits they bring as the driving force.

Ultimately, there is no one size fits all solution and we all have our own nuances when it comes to striving for change. Or you may even be one of those people who wants nothing more than for things to stay exactly as they are right now, and there’s precisely nothing wrong with that.

But, I, for one, love the sense of optimism that comes with new beginnings and I have not intention of relinquishing that joy just yet.

And so, on this note, I will leave you with one of my most favourite resolutions – I will stop saving my favourite clothes for best – which, for Elodie, means wearing the sparkly sequinned dress on the school run!

Happy new year everyone! I hope 2019 is your best year yet.