In my part one, I detailed my achievement of one of my 2023 resolutions – reading 52 books! But today I wanted to share the other resolutions I achieved, and my ones for this year.
My 2023 (last year’s) resolutions:
Sadly, my weight is not restored, and this is the one I regret the most. But, I remain positive, and am starting 2024 with this as one of my resolutions once more, and this time it WILL be my priority. I also, partly due to not being healthy and struggling with concentration and stress because of my low weight, did not manage to relearn Japanese, nor have I been able to try driving. But I’m not going to be angry at myself about this. These are all things I will get to eventually. That’s okay.
Now for the more positive stuff: I’ve kept up this blog (somewhat); I’ve read 52 books, and have found reading a really nice escape this year; I’ve got a place at university, which has been extremely hard admidst all my mental health issues and the hospital admission in the first half of the year; I had one trip abroad, which was amazing; and I managed to get through most of the digital portrait art course! Reiterating this all to myself, I realise I have done a lot this year – and in fact, these resolutions don’t even capture all my achievements. It has been a year of tremendous personal growth, in terms of understanding myself, what I want from life, and developing relationships. I’ve also done so much volunteering, which has involved so many amazing experiences, like cowriting and delivering training on autism and mental health, and performing spoken word about inner strength. I am moving onto a new stage of my life, and I can see in the near future a more ‘adult’ version of myself!
Now, onto 2024. I look at 2023 as part one of my transformation into an adult, into independence, and into finally recovering and finding myself. I hope – without creating too much pressure – this will be a year of more significant changes, now that the foundations have been laid. This year, I want to:
- Read 52 books – because I adore reading, and learning
- Make more posters/factsheets from things I’ve researched – I used to do this a lot, and it’s probably down to my weight again, but I haven’t made as many this year, so I want to get back to that
- Spend more time devoted to art – again, this is a hobby that I have missed out on in the last year
- Relearn Japanese
- Keep on blogging – hopefully more regularly!
I also want to (these four are all more mental health/self care related):
- Develop a healthier relationship with sleep, activity, and eating – this is part of my recovery, and I think this will partly come with weight restoration, but I think it will really help me start to feel genuinely happier again
- Restore my weight
- Prioritise myself more – this is a bit of a vague one, but I have realised this year that I punish myself a lot and frequently undervalue my achievements, and very being..and actually, life is for me to live and be happy, and I don’t want to spend any more time hating myself
- Keep a diary and give myself time to do so.
I think it’s very important to not make (all) resolutions about pushing yourself to do more, be more, etc. I think most of us aren’t looking after ourselves enough, and if that resonates with you – maybe consider changing one of your goals, or setting some that really reflect the most important thing in life, which is to make yourself truly happy.
What are your resolutions?