I love New Year’s resolution planning.
Like, loooove it. Even as a kid I would sit down with my parents and make my list of goals and hopes for the new year. Back then, my New Year’s resolutions mostly included a list of pets I wanted. However, sadly I also had “lose weight” on my goals list as a preteen which, with my current views on our toxic diet culture, makes me want to cry. However, I digress.
Over the years, I’ve tried so many angles on the New Year’s resolution:
One big thing, goals for different areas of my life, a word of the year, push goals, tada lists, and on and on. Last year I got the idea to gamify my resolutions by turning them into a bingo board. Thanks for the idea, Happier with Gretchen Rubin!
This strategy appealed to my husband who is far less of a goal setter than I. We’ve had fun placing stickers on each square as we check things off our board. (No one’s gotten a bingo yet!)
But this year, as I’m starting to think about how best to use this mindset of renewal, I’ve decided to do something a bit different. After two years of fear and struggle during this pandemic, some things have changed. I’m thankfully back to work as an actor and my daughter is in school in person. We have a sitter available to us.
But I still feel like something is missing.
After some thinking, I’ve figured out what it is. Fun. Joy. Delight. I have spent these past two years (as I’m sure you have) in survival mode. My goal is to make sure my children are as healthy and happy as they can be given the current restrictions and to just get by. I told myself over and over: “This is just for now. This is just a season in this life.” But that season keeps extending.
I am so freakin’ sick of just surviving.
So this year, instead of making a list of things to get done, a list of shoulds, and “self-betterment” goals, I am going to make a bingo board of joy. Of fun and delight. There are times this year when I’ve found myself with a short period of free time and have had absolutely no idea what to do with it.
I have forgotten how to have fun, forgotten what delights me and brings me pleasure when I have just myself to worry about.
(Because honestly, that hasn’t come up much over the past couple of years!) IMO, that’s no way to live. So this is my 2022 mission.
More fun, more delight, more joy, more pleasure.
I am determined to rediscover those things for myself even in this current state of the world we’re in. Because I’m done just getting by. I want to feel fully alive again. So forget the New Year’s Resolution. Let’s make a Joy Board instead.
Please let me know in the comments what you’ll be adding to your Joy Board! Are you doing a list? Bingo card? Vision board? Whatever it is, may it fill you with delight. Happy New Year!
Originally published December 2021.
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ABQ Mom, its executive team, other contributors to the site, its sponsors or partners, or any organizations the aforementioned might be affiliated with.
