2020 Resolutions, The Moment Of The Truth
As the year comes to an end, I thought it was time to post my results regarding the 2020 resolutions. If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that I am a big fan of creating lists with my resolutions at the beginning of every year to feel in control of my personal growth.
I enjoy deciding which activities and habits I want to change or improve and I write about them regularly to keep track of my improvement and also keep an eye on the things that I am doing wrong.
Building new habits is difficult, especially if you are used to quitting after a few days of trying, but cutting down your goals into small pieces and try to make them achievable can be pretty fun.
To me, the most crucial part is the feeling of control. Whether deciding to exercise more, stop drinking or buy less. When you fight the impulse to do it, there is a wave of release and power. You are not your weaknesses, you are strong and capable of managing your life.
Of course, resolutions can come in different ways and colours and the overall agreement is that they should always be possible to achieve and able to recover if you miss one day without throwing all the hard work you already made out of the window.
I have been pretty good when it comes to following my resolutions this year. I didn’t write anything crazy, but there were a couple of them that made me feel anxious and had been delaying it for months.
I decided in 2020 I wanted to…
Get healthier and stronger
I can see how badly I specified this one. Getting healthier and stronger is such a generic resolution. It’s easy to convince yourself that you have been healthier by not drinking wine every day, or not eating chocolate that often. There are too many different ways to meet this desire. If I had to guess, I would say that I have met this resolution at a 50% effectivity.
The unfortunate event of the pandemic created a new opportunity of cooking at home more and finding recipes that met my nutritional needs every day. It also gave me the last push to leave the house and get those ingredients that I needed to cook new recipes.
I have been eating a lot healthier. Almost every one of my meals had some vegetables included and my sweets intake had been lower than it was in 2019. However, I have not been exercising. I may have started doing stretches at home and some Hot Yoga classes, but I haven’t pushed myself when I didn’t want to do it, resulting in a mostly lazy year.
Read a minimum of 15 books
Spending so much time at home, you would expect this resolution to be meet at 100%.
It wasn’t the case.
Staying at home re-reading negative updates every day about the world didn’t help want me to stay in the real world. So I went back to reading fiction books…multiple times. I read some books I had already read years ago. I read classics whose story I already knew.
The purpose of this resolution was to read publications that not only I hadn’t read before, but that I could apply to my life.
Radical Makeover
When I decided to get a makeover, I had already been thinking about changing my hair for months. My brunette hair had suffered a tiny modification that went from the natural light brunette it usually is by default to black (big mistake), testing a few reddish tones.
I wanted to go blonde for a change but was too afraid of destroying my hair cuticles. I was also afraid of looking bad.
I jumped and dyed my hair in one of those times when hairdressers were open because the future looked bright and free.
I know the only thing I needed to meet this simple resolution was money and shutting down the chicken inside of me.
And I did it! This is my favourite photography with blonder hair (I am bending over to touch a cat that is out of my reach). It looks pretty much like highlights from this angle, but the overall result wasn’t too bad. Still, I wasn’t convinced and today I am back to being brunette.
I enjoyed trying some blonde hair, maybe I try it again in a few years!
First Solo Trip
My favourite one.
I went on a solo trip for 4 days, and I L-O-V-E-D every part of it.
My anxiety before the trip was skyrocketing. I literally spent the night awake rethinking if I should have to cancel it and wait for a bit longer.
I am glad I did it. I needed to spend some time by myself exploring a different city. This is something I had been postponing for years out of fear.
Most of the women I admire visit new cities regularly. Solo travelling is something I have been recommended multiple times and my desire to break through my fears and do it was getting bigger and bigger with time. I decided 2020 would be the year to do it, 2020 wouldn’t be an excuse to not do those things that I was keeping in the ice for main insecurities. I had planned to write a full post with my experience and my best tips for any other person who is thinking about solo travelling too.
How have you done with your resolutions? Have you met almost all of them or you are keeping them for 2021? I will make another post with my 2021 solutions soon, Happy New Years Eve in the meantime!
16 Comments
Jamie
It’s great to hear that you managed to get a few things done this year!!
I proposed to myself to re-learn how to drive and was successful at that in the end 🙂
I think it’s very important to try your best with these resolutions and you will definitely see changes over the years
Kiira Smith
Congratulations to you! Relearning how to drive is something very useful, I will need to do at some point too
Karen
Great post. I haven’t done a lot of new years resolutions in the past, but in 2021 I want to meditate for 20 minutes a day for at least a month. I’ve tried multiple times but haven’t been consistent.
Kiira Smith
It is very difficult to be consistent with long term resolutions. Let’s try to make it work with the meditation!
John Malone
Its fantastic to hear you did well. Last year I proposed myself to be more frugal and to not to spend so unnecessarily. I did pretty well!
Looking forward to your 2021 resolutions, I am organising mine too hehehe
Kiira Smith
Yes! Being frugal at least was a bit easier during this year hehe
Caroline
Great post, I find it very interesting to read other people’s experiences w new years resolutions!
I didn’t do too much this year sadly, but I’m working on my health next year, especially because I recently secured a promotion that will make work more demanding of my time. In the past when things have changed at work I’ve stopped looking after myself as much – but I need to prioritise myself and my wellbeing. So yeah. It’s really just about building daily habits like logging food, eating fruit and veggies, taking a multivitamin, drinking water, doing some exercise etc. I know that if I make the little changes that I’ll feel a lot better. I just need to actually make said changes and make them stick!
Kiira Smith
Thanks Caroline 🙂 I do something very similar when it comes to changes in my daily job/routine. Unfortunately, as soon as we stop taking care of our health we start suffering for it. Take care of yourself and congratulations on your promotion!
Sharon
My resolutions for next year:
Get a job and keep it.
Do something other than eat, sleep, work and watch TV, like a hobby or something.
Make a friend, a real friend.
Get in better shape.
I look forward to see yours!!
Kiira Smith
I love your resolutions Sharon 🙂 Good luck with the job and the friend, I will publish mines soon too!
Alex
I heard the other day about making month long resolutions instead of doing resolutions for the whole year. I am still torn… what are your thoughts?
Kiira Smith
Interesting, I think short term resolutions can be helpful when it comes to changing habits. If you are trying to quit alcohol and your are only 3 weeks in you may give up when you think that you have only over 11 months to meet the resolution. If you made it a monthly resolution, you may push yourself a few more days. At the end of the day, it’s about making them attainable 🙂
Marla
Great resolutions and awesome to hear that you did well!! 🙂
This year I commited to read for 30 mins every day, it was great!
Kiira Smith
That’s awesome well done Marla, let’s keep it up for 2021 🙂
Lynn
Great update. I have had great experiences travelling solo and I think it is something that every girl/woman should try doing
Kiira Smith
Thank you Lynn, can’t agree more!