Question You Want to Answer Before Moving Forward to the Next Month

Since we’re already at the end of January and February is right in front of our eyes, I’m going to ask you this question: how’s your New Year's Resolution so far?

No pressure. I don't expect you to have already accomplished one of your annual goals (although, if you have, you deserve a big round of applause). I just want to know if you’re still keeping track on that one habit you said you were going to build this year.

For me, quoting from Blackpink’s Jisoo, “not bad, but not good”. I have this weekly habit tracker on my 2023 planner where I’ll write down all the routines I want to develop and tick boxes beside them every time I manage to do it. The result so far? Looks good for those boxes beside the “read book” column. But looks bad for those beside the “wake up early” one.

What about you? Your answer determines your fate for the next 5 minutes.

If you’re still as motivated and disciplined as your New-Year-New-Me self, that’s cool! You’re free to leave this page. If you’re like me, who start falling apart, but still working on it, that’s totally okay! You can also leave this page, but I recommend you to stay. HOWEVER, if your answer to my question is, “I didn’t make New Year’s Resolution”, then you must STAY.

Because I have a follow-up question: may I know the reason?

Source: Pinterest

You see, some people like to plan in advance and some others prefer to just go with the flow. Some choose to be clear, and some choose to be flexible. There are also, of course, those in between. Who know what they want to do but manage to adapt with the situation along the way. Whichever one you are, it’s great! And if it's your personality or tendency that underlies your action to "not make New Year's resolutions", then I fully understand it.

However, sometimes we’re not doing something just because “we don’t feel like it”. That the question “why not” can only make us think, “why should I?” or “I don’t know, maybe I just don’t want to(?)”. That even all these “The Importance of Setting Your Goals” articles don’t work for us. Well, if that’s your reason, I think I can help you 😉

“What’s the point? Resolutions only works in the first months, if not the first few days”

I heard this a lot. Things like, “gym gets really crowded in the beginning of the year, but then not anymore”. But here’s my opinion. It’s better to only perform a good habit for a month out of 12, instead of not doing it at all.

Maybe you think, “this habit won’t last. I’ll end up only doing this until February”. It’s okay. See the positive side. By thinking like that, you won’t feel pressured. You don’t have to do something for a whole year. You can just do it for a month.

You don’t have to finish a chapter of your thesis in a day, you can just write something even if it’s only a sentence. You don’t have to buy new phone at the end of the year, you can just put some pocket money into your piggybank everyday for a week. Sure, you have to be committed to achieve that ultimate goal. But at least, when you don’t feel like doing it at all, this mindset makes you at least want to start. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, next week, or even next month. So why don’t do it now when you and everyone else still have that new year spirit?

“I don’t know even what I want to achieve this year. In fact, I don’t know what I want at all”

Same, I was like that too. I’ve always been the kind of person who likes to plan. Who knows what I want. But at the start of this year, for the first time after a long time, I was lost and didn’t know what my goals are.

However, I didn’t like that kind of feeling of having no purpose. I realized that I was overwhelmed with what people around me were doing to the point where I kept comparing myself with others and ended up not knowing what I actually needed. So I found a way to overcome it by doing these things that you can also try:

1. Look back to what happened last year. What did we achieve? What did we not achieve. What are we proud of? What do we regret? By noticing these things, we can have some visions on the kind of person we want to be and what we have to work on.

2. Scroll through Pinterest and save images we like in a new board, then look at that board again to see the big picture of things that interest us. Maybe we will realize that we like to cook. Maybe we will realize that we want to try solo travelling.

3. After we figure things our, write our goals down so it becomes much clearer than just some vague idea in our head

4. Make our goals visible everywhere we go by setting it as our desktop background or our phone wallpaper.

Psstt.. while doing these things, I also listened to some inspiring podcast and vibe to some motivating music. It helped me lift my mood. Let me know if you want to the podcast and playlist I listened to.

“I missed THE moment. Now it’s a little bit too late to talk about New Year’s Resolution”

So what? I also always try to remind myself this every time (seriously). That you can start anytime.

We always think “I will start planning my new habit in the new year”, “I will start doing it at the beginning of the month”, “I will start working on it on Monday”, or “I’ll do it tomorrow morning”. That’s good. But what if we missed the moment? Are we going to wait for another day? Another week? Another month? Or let another year pass? That is not good.

Why do you think I post this on January 31 instead of January 1? This post would look really good then. It’s because I missed THE moment. But hey, I still managed to upload it, right? You can do it too! (Same goes to you, my beautiful readers who are still working on maintaining that habit)