"Oh, my resolution was to get more attention."

-Kelly Kapoor

Here we are approaching the third week of a brand new year.  Did you fudge on your New Year’s resolutions already?  I’m not here to shame you because, as humans, this will happen.  Every year, we make a new resolution.  Sometimes, it’s a simple one, like Erin’s learning a new word every day, which, by the way, can go immensely.  Or maybe it’s more complex, like giving an ultimatum and breaking up with someone if they don’t propose to you.  It can be hard to keep up with whichever one you choose.

This year, we can do something new with our resolutions.  Perhaps instead of creating a detailed resolution, we can choose a theme for how we want our year to go, a word instead of a sentence with action verbs.  Selecting a word or even a few words to create a theme around your goal(s) for the year can help you make better decisions and choices.

For example, if you want to reflect more on your life this year, you may choose words like reflect or gratitude.  Then, this year, you can try to do more things that allow you to be more grateful or aware.  Themes can be held on to better than a specific goal that may be unattainable or difficult to achieve.

Let’s look at some of the resolutions our favorite characters from The Office had.  Michael had resolved to floss more.  “Boom, 12:01 AM blood everywhere.”  If you resolve to floss more, that’s great.  Maybe Michael’s word or theme for the year could have been to improve overall hygiene.  That could include flossing more one day and maybe showering more, trying a new deodorant, or getting monthly pedicures.  It’s not just one thing; it’s a bunch of attainable actions that fall under a central theme.  

How do you know if you're successful?

One word: reflection.  Looking back at the end of the day, week, month, and year and assessing what went well or what you could have done better can help you to make different or the same choices in the days, weeks, or months to come.  

My word of the year is focus.  This doesn’t feel as daunting as “focus more on writing in my blog daily and posting content.”  While that can be part of what I want to focus on, I’ll feel ok if I don’t write daily and post content.  Maybe one day, I will focus on reading a chapter of my book.  Or I focus on cleaning the kitchen every night.  As long as I am focused on one thing, I will feel accomplished when I reflect on my day or week.

To hold myself accountable, I cannot reflect in my mind.  I need to write it down.  I need to be able to look back and see my progress, and the best way to do that is by making a record of what I did, what I thought about, and basically, my reflections.  This can be through a video series you record and can watch back on.  I don’t want to watch back videos of myself talking, so I am opting to write it down in my planner or journal.  

This year, I have been writing in my digital planner.  Sure, some days I am behind.  The first week of the year, I did awesome.  I wrote my to-do list the night before, looked at my day each morning, mapped out my calendar and list for the week, and checked things off.  I always thought I didn’t have much going on to necessitate a planner.  It wasn’t until after I started jotting down all the things to do and calendar events that I realized I’ve been keeping way too much in my head, which is why I’ve been so forgetful.  

I’m not going to beat myself up or give up if I don’t write in my planner daily. I’m going to do my best to focus on what I can, and writing things down in my planner will help me do just that.  

As a fan of The Office, you know I had to create a planner with Office themes. That helps me enjoy opening my planner more.

Here's a page from my planner with a daily reflection:

Notice how my accomplishment for the day wasn’t a major accomplishment. It’s okay to have a small accomplishment. Taking small steps helps you stay consistent with whatever theme you’ve selected.

Do you need help choosing a word?

This part will require some reflection on your part.  If you were going to make a detailed resolution, what would it be?  Why have you chosen that?  What words come to mind when you think of this resolution?  Write down all the related words to this resolution and see if you can find a theme.

Here are some examples of different themes and words that fall under it:

Words of Creativity: Innovate, Vision, Resourceful, Unique, Intuitive

Words of Reflection: Mediate, Reset, Pause, Gratitude, Focus, Thoughtful, Self-Reflection, Optimism, Awareness

Words of Improvement: Growth, Nourish, Renew, Change, Evolve, Bloom, Progress, Upgrade, Advancing, Boost, Recharge

Creating attainable New Year's resolutions involves setting realistic and achievable goals that align with your values and lifestyle.  While it helps some people achieve their goals by setting specific goals, you may have heard of SMART goals, that always isn’t realistic for a handful of people.  Let’s not beat ourselves up or quit because we missed our specific resolution of “lift weights 3x a week for 30 minutes.”  It’s ok to start over again.  Keep trying, or better yet, create your word of the year.  Making your resolution specific is perfectly okay if that helps you keep yourself accountable.  This blog post aims to help others keep going by setting a theme for their year.  While having a theme can seem so broad, you can write down smaller, attainable goals under your theme.

"One of the hardest parts about making resolutions is keeping them. Most resolutions are abandoned by February...but that's okay because it's not about being perfect, it's about trying."

-Pam Halpert

My Word of the Year

Here's my word of the year: focus. This word falls under the theme of reflection, so maybe my year will revolve around reflecting with attention on focus. I'm listing some of my goals that relate to this word.

1. Focus on my mental health by reflecting on each day, what went well, and what could have been better, and then aim to do better the next day or keep at it if it went well.

2. Read books this year and try to read a few pages daily.

3. Walk 10,000 steps daily, six days a week, using my treadmill at my standing desk instead of just standing on it.

4. Take one day a week to brainstorm topics for my blog.

My goals may seem unrealistic or too specific for some people, but the truth is, I was already on track to continue doing the 10k steps six days a week since the last year I was doing that 3 to 5 days a week.  Your goals will differ based on your individual needs.

Remember that creating your word of the year is about progress, not perfection. Focus on making realistic and sustainable changes that contribute to your well-being and happiness.  Give yourself grace if you don’t follow through as often as you’d like, and overall, don’t give up!

Need help keeping track of your life?  If you’re an Office fan, you’re in for a treat.  I have created a few planners with The Office themes that I love.  Check them out in my shop.