How I’m Taking a New Approach to Resolutions in 2021
By: Hannah Kojima
Tags: Lifestyle, New Year Resolution, 2021, New Year

Photo by Marisol Benitez on Unsplash

New Year’s resolutions. Some people love them. Some people hate them. Whether you love of hate them, I think we can all agree that most resolutions are forgotten after the first month or so of the new year.

I was one of these people for… well my whole life at this point. I would set resolutions like loose 10 pounds, exercise more, save more money, live life “fully”, and so on. All of these resolutions required me to drastically change my lifestyle the moment the clock struck midnight. As for live life “fully,” what did that even entail? Even I didn’t know despite making it my resolution.

This year, I decided to change up my New Year’s resolutions. I am not fully giving up on New Year’s resolutions, but rather changing how I am formatting them. So, here are my resolutions for 2021 and how they are different from previous years. I am hoping these resolutions will inspire you to change how you format your resolutions as well.

1. Read a book a month.

Read one book a month. When I was little, I loved reading. As I grew up and became more and more busy, reading became less and less of a priority. Despite always loving reading, there have been points where I stopped reading anything for pleasure because I felt like I didn’t have time. What’s great about this resolution of reading one book a month is that it doesn’t have to take that much time. All that I really need is about 20 minutes each night before I go to sleep.

2. Say ‘I love you’ more

Tell people I love them more often. My family, as a partly Japanese family (my father is born and raised in Japan) is a family that doesn’t necessarily express their love openly. I want to change this. I want my family and friends to know I love them. So, this year I want to tell them I love them whether is in person, over the phone, or via text.

3. Say ‘thank you’ more often

Express my appreciation for people more often. Tell that person who looks out for you at work you appreciate them helping you all the time. Make a habit of saying ‘thank you’ to the person who rung up your groceries or the barista at Starbucks who made your drink. A small thank you can make not only the person receiving it feel good, but also the person saying feel good.

4. Call my family once a week

Call or FaceTime my family once a week. In 2020 I moved back to Tokyo, while my family stayed in the United States. This year I want to make an effort in keeping in touch with them despite the time difference. It is so easy to resort to texting, but there is something special about hearing the person’s voice rather than just reading their message on the screen. Each call doesn’t have to be long. Call, say hi, see how your family is doing.

5. Wake up and tell myself I am beautiful

Every morning look at myself in the mirror and tell myself I am beautiful. While we all know beauty standards that are perpetuated by the media extremely toxic, it is difficult to not be influenced by it. I am guilty of scrolling on social media sites or reading fashion magazines, seeing a beautiful model or advertisement photo and thinking ‘I wish I was that beautiful’, or ‘why can’t I look like that.’ This is despite the ‘everyone is beautiful’ messages that are also on social media sites. Just being told ‘you are beautiful’ by others is often not enough — you need to actually believe it yourself. So, every morning on 2021, I will look at myself in the mirror and tell myself I am beautiful until I believe it.

6. Write down 3 wins of the day

This was an idea based off of something a dance professor suggested to me in college. I always struggled with confidence when dancing, so she suggested I write 3 things I did well at the end of each class. That way, when I am feeling insecure about something, I can look back in my notebook to remember that I have reasons to feel confident while dancing. This notebook was surprisingly helpful, and I was able to become a more confident dancer within just a semester.

2020 had me feeling pretty down on myself, as it probably had a lot of other people feeling. I am hoping by having a little notebook of each day’s wins in 2021, I will be able to change my perspective in 2021.

What I’m trying to say by sharing my resolutions for 2021 is that this year, rather than expecting unrealistic goals from yourself, set more attainable resolutions. Each of the above resolutions don’t require a lot of time. Saying ‘I love you,’ or ‘thank you,’ or even ‘you are beautiful’ takes seconds. Writing down 3 wins of the day takes about 5 minutes. Calling your family and reading a book a month take about 20 minutes a day. Sometimes it’s small changes that have the most profound effect.