Revisiting Resolutions

We’ve made it halfway through 2020!

It’s been rough for everyone, and who knows if it will slow down, but let’s take a minute today to tune out the craziness and the chaos and focus on what we’d envisioned this year to be like back in January.

Last year I jumped onto the Vision Board train, as well as the Bullet Journal airplane and the Word of the Year bicycle. Rather than keep a loose-leaf page of college-ruled paper with a list of my resolutions on them, I’ve pinpointed what I want to address over the year using (mainly) these three tools. My Pinterest board comes in handy as well!

My Word of the Year this year was “fearless.” Before the coronavirus, I was making leaps and bounds towards overcoming my extreme anxieties out in the work-field and completing many day-to-day tasks that normally exhaust me. Then the world was told to go to its room and most of my progress was washed away.

Some goals I’d included on my vision board are no longer possible. I was able to achieve a tiny portion of one of my goals before the coronavirus interfered, and others I never got a chance to start. Large portions of my bullet journal are untouched this year as well. But, instead of wallowing in disappointment, I've chosen to give my vision board and bullet journal a makeover so that I can continue to focus on my goals for the remainder of this crazy year.

So today, I am putting new life into what I wanted this year to look like when I first mapped out my goals. The first step was re-organizing my vision board. With the goals that the coronavirus stamped “unachievable” clogging up my focus, every time I looked at my board, I would feel extreme disappointment and even the guilt of failure. I unpinned every single photo and gave it a face lift. I took away the goals I’d have to set aside for next year and collected them into an envelope, in case I want to reuse the same photos when I create my 2021 board. With the clutter gone, I rehung my center photo (which is the word “fearless”) and then organized my remaining goals in between “fearless” and the quotes I selected to keep me inspired. Now it looks fresh, new, and exciting again, just like it did in January.

I also went through my bullet journal and crossed out the "unachievable" goals with a thin line so I can still read them when I build my next journal after Christmas. Many of the spreads I’d spent hours drawing won’t be usable this year, but that’s okay. I still had fun making them!

Now, when I sit down to work and create, my workspace feels lighter. This alone has seriously boosted my mood and helped me focus more clearly on hitting my word count goals for my novel. I left a few goals up that I’m honestly not sure I’ll be able to complete this year, but out of all the ones I had to take down, there are only two that I’m not confident I’ll be able to complete (and both of those are only questionable because of business closures.)

Here in Ohio, things are slowly starting to reopen. There are many people fighting for the “freedom” to choose not to wear masks, which has kept me happily indoors where I can read as many books as my heart desires, but it also causes me to hesitate on a couple of my goals. I’m not sure I want to go to the gym any time soon (was anyone even wiping down the equipment before the pandemic!?), but I’m determined to not let COVID stop me from making progress the rest of the year.

My biggest goals this year were to make major lifestyle changes to my exercise and eating habits. I’m not eager to go get a gym membership even though the doors are open now, but I can walk my dog more and drag my husband on “runs,” which is something I’d like to do but not something I’d like anyone to watch me do. I’ve also been trying to think outside the box. I have fond memories of following along to my mom’s old exercise tapes, so I’ve been searching YouTube for free low-impact workout videos. (The low-impact videos are good for people who have been on the couch since March, or who live in apartments and don’t want to wake up their neighbors by doing jumping jacks). I also own a yoga mat and a pair of 5lb weights, so I can get a full-body workout at home. Being stuck inside on the couch has also given me the chance to itemize my food budget, find new recipes, cook as much as I’d like, and save money by carefully online ordering my groceries from Kroger, Aldi, and Walmart. Now, if I could only stop eating all the Oreos I buy for my husband’s lunch...

Another large goal I had was money-based. Unfortunately, like many others, my job was scrapped when the states were shut down, and I’m not sure I will be asked to return when my place of employment is given the thumbs-up to reopen. I had also been let go from another position before Christmas, so things have been a little complicated for a while, but thankfully my husband found a warehouse job and has recently been promoted from “why is everyone ordering so much stuff during a pandemic” status to full time “people are still ordering truckloads of crap” status. We’ve been living on a student’s shoestring budget for so long, it is really important to me that we start off with our “adult money” on the right foot. I joined the Personal Finance sub-Reddit, where I learned many things, gained access to budgeting spreadsheets, and have thousands of people who can answer my questions, all for free. Even though I am still unemployed for the time-being, I have seriously changed the way I think about money just by listening to other people and doing some Googling.

I can’t force myself to try new things in order to face my fears this year, because the world is still waking up from its forced slumber and many of those cancellations are out of my control. I also can’t see a new show every month because the theatres have arguably been hit the worst by the pandemic and won’t be reopening until late fall (if they choose to reopen at all this year.) I won’t be able to take the trips I wanted to take with my husband or try as many local pizza places as I would like, but it would be foolish of me to say that this year is a waste.

Don’t let yourself get trapped into thinking that we should all just throw in the towel on the whole year. I know I still have plenty I can do to continue working on changing myself into a better person, so I’m sure there is at least one thing you can do too. On the flip side, don't pressure yourself into exaggerating what your life "should" be like just because other people (probably fueled by anxiety and way too much caffeine) have been adopting habits and "being successful." If what you really need is rest, then rest. This time should not be wasted, and giving yourself a chance to relax when you don't normally get to binge a Netflix show and eat an entire pan of brownies is NOT a waste, no matter what your social media feed is telling you.

How can you breathe new life into your original New Years’ Resolutions?

If you had fitness goals and are terrified to enter a gym again (like me), find a free YouTube workout that fits into your schedule and set an alarm to work up a sweat. Or, order a jump rope and get an easy full-body workout in your driveway.

If you had finance-related goals but your funds are limited, spend time teaching yourself how you can better handle your finances. When your income stream is flowing again you’ll feel much better about how to jump back into the game.

If you want to eat better, use your store’s online ordering tool to curb impulse buys. Make a meal plan and only buy what you need for the recipes you picked ahead of time; Kroger’s pickup option has worked wonders for us. It’s getting hotter here, but baking our dessert options has saved us a lot of money as well.

Now that we are refocused, read your goals out loud to yourself (or God or the universe or your cat). Recommit yourself to improvement. You don’t have to add on any new habits or hobbies just because your social media feed says “If you don’t do it now, you’ll never do it!” Just focus on what you already wanted to accomplish, figure out how to make it work in this new temporary life we have, or save it for next year.

Nothing changes if nothing changes.

Stay safe and wear a mask!