It's 2022. So here are 22 things to think about - this year. If you allow just one of them to make a difference, that's a good thing.
1. This year, I’ll care less about how many different things I do, and more about how well I do what’s in front of me.
2. This year, I’ll remind myself that the thing to admire most about so many people’s photographs of themselves online is neither their diet, fitness discipline nor wonderfully youthful expression. It’s their Photoshop skills.
3.This year, I’ll face front. I’ll be inspired by the person I want to be in the future, not disappointed by any version of myself that I allowed myself to become in the past.
4.This year, the only things I’ll look to improve in myself will be 100% because I don’t love them and 0% because of how anybody else – at all – feels about them.
5.This year, I’ll judge less. Remembering that when I think or articulate negative notions about other people, it says far more about me than it does about them.
6.This year (if I want to), I’ll diet more – and talk about dieting less. And I’ll go to the gym more – and talk about going to the gym less. (After all, it’s me I’m doing it for).
7.This year, I’ll remember that a failed goal does not mean a failed future. I’ll go again.
8.This year, I’ll be more positive about the impact I can have on the world. Because I’ll focus less on what I don’t have, and more on what I can do with what I do have.
9.This year, I’ll pay more attention to who I surround myself with. The company I keep impacts who I become more powerfully than I imagine.
10. This year, when I get frightened, I’ll write my fears down, examining also the worst-case scenario linked to each fear. It’s unlikely that any outcome will be anywhere near as bad as I think.
11. This year, I’ll not take things too seriously. Life is so, so short. (And anyhow. If I relax. Life is likely to be that little bit longer, anyway).
12. This year, I’ll prepare myself for what I want to happen in my life. I can’t always make what I want happen. But I can be ready when it does.
13. This year, I’ll remind myself that the only time I have is now. Yesterday’s gone. Tomorrow never actually arrives. So the sooner I invest in enjoying ‘now’ – the sooner I start living.
14. This year, each time I question, ‘Is this all there is?’ I’ll recognise that (if I want to) this is a trigger to identify clearly, and plan to win, whatever I feel is missing.
15. This year, I’ll say less. And I’ll speak more slowly. That way, I’ll be clearer. More precise. And more confident about what I just said.
16. This year, I might just take a good look at every individual thing I own. One. By. One. Asking myself which of them makes me truly happy. This will inform which I keep, which I give away – and maybe even how I buy or acquire things in the future. 17. This year, I’ll accept once and for all that if I care more about comfort than I do about change – I am the only thing in the way of me living the life I say I want.
18. This year, I’ll remind myself that not one person’s ‘real life’ is as good as their ‘social media life’. They’re not going to show us the crappy bits now, are they?
19. …and this year, I’ll also remind myself that nobody really cares as much about my social media life as I do.
20. This year, I’ll remember that me and my shortcomings are two completely different things. I am not ‘a worrier’. I just worry sometimes. I’m fine – I probably just need to work on the trait that is holding me back.
21. This year, I’ll remember that what I want is ‘gotten’, not ‘given’. So I’ll stop waiting – and start planning.
22. This year, I am the youngest I’ll ever be again. Ever. And I am not too late for anything.