TTT: 10 Resolutions & Hopes for 2021

As many others do, I start my year with a whole lot of grand plans and as the months go by I end up forgetting most of them. According to some random statistics that I just Googled, 80% of all New Year’s resolutions fail. However, having a goal and being able to imagine it coming true has been shown to work for many people. Books like The Secret, The Power of Positive Thinking, and The Power of Now all have the same message: you can make anything happen if you believe it can happen.

So here are the 10 things I plan to do to help manifest my dreams.

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Learn how to meditate. It seems like every book on living a better life wants you to learn how to meditate… or at least learn how to calm your mind. This is because we tend to get stuck in our own day to day routines and forget to take a moment to just breathe. Thousands of studies show that meditation can positively impact mental and physical health.

Keep a gratitude journal. Gratitude is the practice of making space for appreciation. It can be so easy to focus on the negative parts of our day that we forget to look for the good. I plan to write down at least one thing that I am grateful for each day, just to remind myself that there is more to my life than a single bad moment.

Read 52 books, or 1 book a week. I always set a Goodreads goal each year, and feel like 1 book a week is totally possible with my current lifestyle. Some years I have managed to read way more, but working a full-time job means that I need to be more realistic with my goals. Perhaps with this lockdown for the first month or more of 2021, I will be able to get more reading done. I have a pretty good pile of books waiting for me to get to them.

Write more often. Along with my hope that I will continue blogging on a regular basis throughout the year, I have some other writing goals. I have a monthly commitment to write a mental health blog for a former employer, and have recently been asked to help with some freelance writing work for a friend who owns an online business.

Plan my days more efficiently. As many others have experienced during lockdown, all my days tend to blend together. During the last lockdown, I had a very regular schedule set out for me because I was working from home. This time around I am on my own, and I need to set daily goals to keep me busy. This past week is a very good indication of how things will go if I don’t have set times for things.

Be more active. In relation to my previous goal, I also need to get out of the house and move more. I will happily sit on the couch with a book, or my laptop, all day long if I don’t have a specific place to go. With everything locked down, it’s going to be hard to find a place to go, but I’m sure I can figure out something.

Save money. I am not the best at saving money, especially when I find a new hobby that I enjoy. I get caught up in the desire to own everything that I could possibly need for this new interest. This year I want to be more mindful about what I spend my money on, and keep my purchases to the things I need rather than what I want.

Adopt a dog. Last year we lost our beautiful doggo rather suddenly. My husband and I are still grieving, as we don’t have children and we raised her from puppyhood. I am hopeful that some time this year we will be ready to bring home another fur-baby. We were very lucky to find Cali online at the exact right time when we were looking for a new pet. So hopefully when we are ready in this new year the same good luck will be with us.

Travel more. I know this one is a long shot the way things are going, but I’m hopeful that maybe I’ll be able to travel some time this year. The big dream would be able to go to Cuba again, but if that can’t happen, at least I would like to visit friends and family whom I haven’t seen in a while.

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What hopes and dreams do you have for 2021?

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week a new Top Ten list for anyone to answer. Just add a link to them on your post, and add your name to the weekly linky!