2023
It’s a new year! We love the new year as an opportunity to make those changes we’ve been meaning to in the past year.
You came into the new year with “new year energy.” You’ve set the goals and all the intentions.
Maybe you started going to bed earlier, exercising more often, downloading the mindfulness apps, cut down on your substance use, or bought that journal for jotting down your daily gratitudes.
But we’re three weeks into the new year now…. So how are you doing?
You might be exhausted and overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything you wanted to start/restart.
If you’re like me, your list of “new year, new me” was long, overly ambitious, and filled with:
all the things you want to do (e.g., reading a book a month, exercise 3-5 times a week, finally attending that MeetUp group)
the things you’re “supposed” to do because it’s “supposed” to help (e.g., meal prepping, getting in your recommended daily fiber, budgeting better)
the latest trend in physical and/or mental health (e.g., habit trackers, gratitude journals, social media cleanses)
Goals around personal growth and challenging ourselves to be better are amazing, don’t get me wrong.
But life is hectic, demanding, and overwhelming on a day-to-day basis. So you might have missed meal prepping all your meals and snacks or exercising for a few days, and you likely slept in and skipped the journalling, or completely forgot about tracking the fact that you got Starbucks three times this week.
And maybe you’re beating yourself up because you finally wanted this year to be the year. And you’re worried you have no discipline and you might as well just give up on these goals. Maybe they’re not important after all.
It is OKAY to not be perfect in everything you do.
Any amount of change takes some amount of effort. And if you’re finding yourself paralyzed by the current state of the economy, the latest evidence of climate change, or trying to adult and do it all, you simply may not have the capacity to take on yet another thing that requires your time, energy, and attention.
Goals for the new year don’t have to be drastic.
And they don’t all have to happen at once.
Instead, consider some small, realistic changes you’d like to make. For example:
only snooze your wake up alarm once
get back into that language learning app once a week
experiment with the best form of movement for you, and learn when it best fits in your schedule
consider what activities you actually want in your daily/weekly/monthly schedule, and schedule these things ahead of time
Maybe this new year, it’s finally time to prioritize you and ask for help learning how to balance all the things in your life.
Looking to connect with a therapist who can support you in managing your goals for the new year? Submit a consultation request form now!
(Oregon & Washington residents only)
About the author
Amanda Buduris is a licensed psychologist providing virtual therapy services in Oregon and Washington. She is trained in multiple modalities of trauma-focused healing to best support clients who are looking to feel better faster.
