What’s Next? My Goals for 2022

My hopes and goals for the New Year.

I have a love hate relationship with new year’s resolutions, as I explored in my post last year, I think they can be a mixed blessing. They can serve as a positive motivator to reevaluate where we are and where we would like to be and give us a chance to implement beneficial changes. However, they can also just be another productivity pressure or perfection-seeking impulse in a society which already has way too much pressure of those sorts anyway. So, I definitely wouldn’t say that you need to set new years resolutions or goals.

With all of that in mind, I am going to set some loose goals this year with the intention of simply getting more enjoyment out of everyday life.

In the last 2 years but especially last year, I struggled significantly and as a result felt very little joy in my life even when some happy things were happening, and I want and need that to change. So, I am intentionally setting these goals because for me, I am a person who tends to not put myself first and I am hoping by setting them out as goals (or resolutions) that I will be more likely to do them. I hope that makes sense. I have written an overall goal and then some more specific goals or ideas that will hopefully help achieve my larger goal.

Overall goal: to enjoy life more, feel more joy, and to feel healthier physically & mentally.

Personal Goals:

• Read more. I love to read but often don’t make enough time to do it, this year I want to continue making more time to read.
• Explore other creative activities I enjoy. I have neglected a lot of hobbies I enjoy in the last few years as life has felt very busy and chaotic. This year I want to prioritize spending my free time reexploring creative hobbies that I love such as crafting, playing violin, painting and drawing.
• Put my physical and mental health first. For many reasons I have not put my mental and physical health first: money, time and other life circumstances. But this year I want to be almost “selfish” in putting my health first and I want to share as much of that journey as I can with you so hopefully we can put our health first together. Some concrete examples of this might include yoga, walking, healthy eating, resting, therapy, and exploring other alternative options like CBD.
• Less time on social media just scrolling. While I enjoy social media and think there can be a lot worth doing on social media, I want to spend less time “just scrolling”. When I am feeling bored I have a tendency to endlessly scroll through social media looking for entertainment, this year when I feel that way I want to try to push myself to do something else (read, write, cook etc.)
• Get outside more. Its simple but true. Last year, I spent a lot of time indoors for fear of getting covid-19 living in a busy city. Now living outside the city-center I want to be sure to spend more time outside in nature where I feel most at peace.
• Get more involved in activism. I think of myself as a progressive person and I am constantly trying to educate myself about many different issues: racism, income inequality, global warming and trans-rights, to name a few. But this year I want to try to become more directly involved in activism with the intent of making real change. I don’t know what form this will take yet, but I am seeking it out.

Goals for the blog:

• I want to continue uploading and to be more consistent. I really enjoy writing and sharing that with you all. It brings me a sense of purpose, accomplishment, and also serves as a creative outlet.
• I want to push myself to go deeper and be even more honest with you all. I think to get even more out of this space and medium I need to push myself to be even more authentically me. This is not only beneficial to my own mental wellbeing but I think will also give you more opportunity to truly connect and potentially benefit as well.
• I want to be less scared about what others might think and express myself more freely. This one sort of goes hand in hand with the previous goal and its a hard one because sharing things on the internet can certainly backfire. Regardless, I want to try to be less frightened about what might happen and just write what I want to write.

I don’t know if I will meet all or even some of these goals. I don’t know what is in store for 2022. But sitting down and taking the time to think about what I want and what I need in my life is a helpful exercise for me to do and the new year is a good time (although not the only good time) to do it. I hope by sharing these with you, I have inspired you even just to ask yourself “How am really I doing?” and, “What do I want or need in life?”. Because I think even just those two questions can lead to some helpful thoughts.

Do you set new years resolutions or goals? If not, why not? If so, what are some of your goals for 2022?

Write soon,

Hannah B.L.

If you haven’t already, check-out my thoughts on 2021!