Look, it’s not that we have a vendetta against New Year’s resolutions or don’t want people to explore something new on their fresh start. We just take issue with the fact that we focus so much on challenging ourselves to reach new heights and claim new goals without really considering the circumstances and situations we are concurrently facing as we jot down the different milestones we plan to achieve by a set date.
And to no one’s surprise, we only ever get the ball rolling for the first few weeks after the holiday season until we run into complications with time management, sustainability, or general motivation fueling these goals. Thus, to stray away from the crowd and hopefully make some sense of the uncertainty of the future, you must prioritize your happiness first before anything else because a genuine smile always points to a promising path.
Actively Help Your Body Heal
At the top of your agenda to feeling and moving incredibly happy this 2022, you must choose to actively help your body heal from all the battle scars and wounds it’s taken from all of last year’s dilemmas. In fact, it’s not even a stretch to say that we still carry some burdens all the way from two years ago, and it’s about time we work on those problems first before adding on extra weight to our backpacks.
- Cut the Latenight Drama and Sleep More: Most people consider cutting back sleep and burning the midnight candle for work purposes as something admirable. While it may provide future career-oriented benefits, sacrificing your only chance to recuperate should never become a regular thing. Sure, you could be among the many people building their startups after the great resignation, but please remember to balance things out and sleep as the body demands it.
- Introduce Healthier Eating Habits ASAP: We’re not going to deny that we are also suckers for convenience and love the freedom of getting to order food and have it arrive at your doorstep ready to eat. However, if you want to start smiling again and feeling happy, introducing healthy eating habits is necessary to make significant progress. Yes, it might sound cliche to say that you are what you eat, but no one’s ever reported to be ecstatic by eating fast food every single day.
- Get a Bit of Movement in Your System: People often sing the praise of regular exercise and hitting the gym every so often, but while those goals are commendable, even getting a bit of movement every day is enough to get you feeling better. Nobody’s forcing you to get ripped as Jacob Elordi, and it’s all the fluff and super far-reaching body transformations that cause people to crash and burn. So take it from us and just get a bit of movement day by day until you feel more comfortable trying new things.
Reconnect With Your Burning Passions
After accounting for the physical dimensions of life that can influence your general happiness, your next objective is reconnecting with your passions, essentially healing the emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects all at once. It may come off as trying to cram in far too many things into one process. Still, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover that these different dimensions directly intersect with one another, making it possible to knock out all three together.
- Set Some Time Aside for Yourself: Firstly, nothing comes close to the uplifting feeling of setting some time aside for yourself. It’s liberating, and you come to the conclusion that you’ve been missing out on so much when you could’ve done this much sooner. Thus, don’t work yourself to the bone and find some free time in your schedule to simply relax because you know you deserve it.
- Do Something That Gives You Fulfillment: Apart from relaxation, one direct way of reconnecting with your passions is by doing something that gives you fulfillment. We all find satisfaction in different things, and whether that’s designing personalized T-shirts with vinyl sheet patterns or going out in the garden to care for your succulents, indulging in these activities is sure to make you smile.
- Try Something Beyond Your Comfort Zone: Last but not least, although discomfort isn’t the first thing most would consider a happy situation, going beyond your comfort zone can make for some fun and interesting experiences. Of course, there’s no rush nor pressure to do something big and extravagant, even the smallest of steps count since we’re all about the experience as opposed to the results. Therefore, put yourself out there, and don’t be afraid to welcome something different.
Happiness Drives Change, and We’re Going Nowhere Until You Smile
Most of the time, people treat happiness as a fleeting by-product of good moments, but, in reality, it’s the driver for change and making habits stick. So before you even decide to touch any sort of New Year’s resolution, take control of your happiness and bring back genuine smiles into your life first.
