How I did with 2020 Resolutions

I didn’t make any 2021 resolutions, and I hadn’t published a post on how I did with 2020 resolutions in January 2021 either, so here’s a really late post to make up for that. My 2020 resolutions were: more international travel, less perfectionism and seeking happiness in my current life exactly as it is.

More international travel obviously did NOT happen due to COVID in either 2020 or 2021, so that was a fail that was mostly out of my control. I had booked a trip to Italy for November 2021 for my 45th birthday, but the airlines canceled the departure leg and the available alternate options required two stopovers that were either tight or in locations that were at risk of missing the connections. I opted to cancel the entire trip and hope I will be able to make it up in the future.

Less perfectionism is something I did make decent progress on. The intense work schedule that I endured the first half of 2021 really facilitated that change since I was so exhausted all the time, I didn’t have the energy and got to the point I simply didn’t care about things being perfect. Good enough actually became good enough because there were more important things that I wanted to focus my time and energy on. As an example, I no longer felt the neurotic need to meticulously clean my home for a ridiculous amount of hours as I regularly used to do. Another example that happened just yesterday is writing my blog. I spent most of the day yesterday writing the first blog post of 2022 and could have spent another full day or two trying to perfect it, but I didn’t. My perfectionism trait has absolutely prevented me from completing things and I no longer want that to be the case. I started many different writing pieces and never completed them because I didn’t feel they were perfect. Instead, I am opting to write things good enough and pushing it out there despite the potential typos or less-than-perfect word choices and structure because I’d rather get things done and out for people to read than not at all. Do people really care or notice if something is not exactly perfect, probably not, so why should I waste my time on it? I’d rather take the time to do something else that could have a positive impact on myself or others.

Seeking happiness in my current life exactly as it is was the last 2020 new year’s resolution that I made and is a work in progress that I only very recently have gained momentum on. It is likely because I dropped my gratitude practice, that I struggled more so with this one. I think appreciating all the things I currently have in life, big or small, is key to feeling happiness in my everyday life and not blogging gratitude daily made me lose focus of that. The last two months of 2021, I moved back towards this mindset and found myself actually saying the words to myself “I am so happy right now” and to others “Thank you for making me so happy” several times. People close to me actually noticed and said, I haven’t seen you this happy before! I have figured out how to seek happiness in my current life exactly as it is and know the key will be to maintain this mindset and practice.

Did you make any resolutions last year? If so, please comment and share how you did so I can congratulate you on the progress you made or encourage you to make progress in the upcoming year!