How to Maximize 2022 New Year’s Resolutions

Don’t we all need an accountability partner? 🙋🏼‍♀️ 

I have good news if you’ve already fallen out of your 2022 new-year improved-you routines. It only takes a few purposeful habits to breed a multitude of healthy habits.

In this blog post, I will cover how categorizing the changes you want to make in your life/routine will help prove that a routine started with direct intention is bound to succeed. Through the sections below, we’ll reframe the term “resolution” and simplify how to implement goals that stick as well as re-evaluate the desired, yet unrealistic, goals we made at the end of 2021.  

• Science of Resolutions
• Have an Abundance Mindset
• Let’s Break It Down 
• You Know, Resolutions Can Be Fun
• Concluding Thoughts

Science of Resolutions

I have been trying to understand my thought process and self-reasoning of both myself and those around me for as long as I can remember. When I started listening to podcasts in high school, my entire ‘listen to later’ list was the educational genre, and later in my teens, as I prepared for college, I started filling my bedroom bookshelves with psychology/habit-focused books. I progressed through college with pockets full of questions and I found myself at the intersection of many things–business, science, composition, art, editorial, and more. This feeling of in-between left me asking: why do I do the things I do?. Why do I talk in this tone? Why do I choose to start my morning like this? Do I have the power to master my mind and, live in that space, instead of through my heart? The answers to many of these questions were answered when I read Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business.” 

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Some of the most common resolutions of 2022 are to exercise more, lose weight, eat healthier, spend more time with family, cater to mental health, start investing, travel, and the list goes on (Statista.com). All of these resolutions are completely attainable, yet they come with pressure and “where do I even start” for many people looking to alter their life.  

In “The Power of Habit,” Duhigg challenges what we define as a habit and gives visual examples of the habit loop–a cycle that if we can understand and then harness, will make all our resolutions stick. 

How to Maximize 2022 New Year’s Resolutions

Hacking our neurological system to fit the version of ourselves we want to be is the answer. 

Science and mindset hold hands when it comes to maximizing habits and setting goals in the present, that our future self will be proud of.  

Have an Abundance Mindset

To have a mindset encompassed in abundance is to see life as limitless and in-our-favor. It is a state of knowing. Knowing that difficult times will surface but they will always be outweighed by life’s blessings. 

Don’t feel like you can relate to this definition?

• Start thinking of five things you are grateful for right when you wake up
• Surround yourself with positive people that support you
• Get some crayons and paper and make a bucket list 
• Join a give-back project or volunteer locally
• Develop a daily curiosity practice

All of these practices will help frame your goals for 2022 in a way that feels boundless. By combining Duhigg’s habit loop and practicing an abundance mindset, resolutions begin to feel less like a chore and more like a personal growth game. 

Let’s Break It Down

New Year’s Resolutions are destined to feel overwhelming if we try to start them all at once. It’s great to be ambitious but also essential to get honest about realistically implementing newness into 2022. As my Mama always said growing up about something seemingly too challenging to mentally grasp: “Let’s Break It Down” 

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A list of ideas to fit within the categories above: 

• Wake up at a consistent time throughout the week
• Stay off the phone right when waking up
• Limit reminders and notifications on phone lockscreen
• Commit to planned physical activity a few days a week 
• Take time to celebrate small wins and accomplishments
• Unsubscribe from channels and subscriptions that aren’t benefiting you
• Schedule date nights with your partner 
• Schedule date nights WITH YOURSELF
• Practice breathwork
• Become an observer of your thoughts and monitor negative self-talk
• Do one thing at a time because multi-tasking isn’t a skill, it’s a distraction
• Create a reading goal–even 10 pages a day
• Clean out your closet–quality over quantity
• Do a people-detox by noting how you feel around certain friends 
• Upgrade your skincare routine  

Some FUN Resolutions I made:

• Make workout clothes a fashion statement
• Light more candles around the house
• Start cooking some of those recipes on my Pinterest board 
• Take myself on dinner dates (more on this later)
• Make girls nights essential
• More champagne! – because life is a celebration 
• Walk down to the beach once a week to see one sunrise
• Start a new birthday tradition
• Give myself patience and compliments all the time 

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Concluding Thoughts

By Webster dictionary definition, a “resolution” is a “firm decision” to do something. When thinking through the habits we already have and those that we want to create, it’s important to give ourselves room to fall short and pivot. I’m chosing to “resolution” differently this year. For me, it is a commitment to where I want to go. And this path looks alot like a jungle gym and not a straight line. It’s a choice to do better than yesterday while preparing for a positive tomorrow.

Comment below your top resolutions for 2022 and if you like daily motivation through quotes, images, and an inside look at my fun-lutions in actionthis year, click here.

xxx Allie