By the end of December, too many parties, cocktails, cookies, and lavish meals leave people feeling dull, stressed, bloated, and unenergetic. For many people, New Year’s Eve is the last day of indulgence before starting off a brand new year with new goals and healthier living.
As a result, many people write a list of New Years Resolutions.
Are resolutions valuable?
A resolution is a promise you make to yourself to do something different moving forward and it is a hot topic in January that brings out some great jokes and witty sarcasm. Have you seen the meme about the gym being empty in December vs the gym in January jam-packed with people motivated to work out? Or the memes where people make fun of themselves because they know they won’t stick to their goals more than one day?
Even though people poke fun at resolutions, the fundamental core is valuable. Resolutions help people renew themself physically, socially, mentally or spiritually. They help people create growth and make a change in their lives. The unfortunate part about resolutions is according to a commonly cited statistic, only 8 percent of people actually keep their New Year’s resolutions and 92 percent fail. Many people set a personal improvement goal but express to others that it feels like torture.
The One Year Booze Snooze blog post Make it Stick offers some great suggestions on how to create goals that actually work such as having a “why”, writing “SMART” goals, avoiding all or nothing goals, and creating a goal that is doable. However, even the ultimate goal-setter who follows every suggested strategy will often struggle along the way.
What sabotages momentum in the most determined and driven individuals?
It is likely a combination of boredom, stress, sleep-deprivation, and fast-paced overworked lifestyles.
The key to sticking to your self-renewal plan is to Sharpen the Saw®
Sharpen the Saw® is the habit of daily self-renewal, continuous improvement, and balance. If you don’t take time to focus on your body, mind, heart, and spirit, you decrease your capacity to handle the challenges around you. Your body becomes weak, your mind becomes mechanical, your emotions are raw, your spirit can be insensitive, and you may find yourself selfish.
Every day provides a new opportunity for renewal- a new opportunity to recharge yourself instead of hitting the wall. Stephen Covey
The blog post Hope: Passion for what’s possible says, “Your soul is the power and core of who you are, so feed it well. Take time to recharge and explore your gifts and passions. Connect with something you love and maybe even find a new purpose in life. Listen to music, play games, travel, bake, craft, take warm baths, hike, spend time with pets, write, play an instrument, serve others.”
Hobbies feed the soul
Instead of giving something up as a resolution this year, how about picking up something new? One way to Sharpen the Saw is to actively pursue a hobby whether is new or old. Gasp! You are probably thinking, "who has time for that?" Well, you do!
Reasons you should pick up a new hobby this year:
Build new skills and increase knowledge, which will get even stronger when you teach your hobby to someone else.
Develop patience, especially in the beginning during the learning curve.
Take a break from the daily grind and the monotony of life.
Relieve stress and reduce or eliminate boredom. This helps keep you from picking up a negative habit or continuing with wasteful activities.
Increase your social life and make new friends. You can join a club, participate in a league, or make things you can gift to a volunteer organization. This can make you more interesting and give you something to talk about with people.
Take a risk. You never really know what you’re capable of unless you try something. You may surprise yourself.
Earn some side income. As long as the hobby is not officially tied to your “work”, it can be a fun little side hustle.
The best reason to pursue a hobby?
You are healthier without trying.
When you actively engage in a hobby the subtle impact on your overall health may not seem as drastic and obvious as hitting the gym or following through on a crash diet. But you are indirectly making positive changes in your life. You will feel inspired, passionate, and walk through life with a little more pep in your step. If the fundamental core of resolutions is to help people renew themself physically, socially, mentally or spiritually, create growth and make a change in their lives, it seems like taking up a hobby is a great strategy.
Inspired but not sure where to start or what should you choose as your next hobby? check out these websites that list 60 hobbies for men and 55 hobbies for women.
Mindset Momma’s personal takeaway…
I am a self-described creative hobbyist and I inherited this trait from my father.
Over the years I have spent many hours and many dollars doing embroidery, digital scrapbooking, acrylic painting, graphic design to make invitations and party decor, sewing, playing the drums, blogging, home decorating, chalk painting, party planning, video making, and building projects.
When I get into a phase when I am not actively pursuing a hobby, I feel a little lost and I quickly get lazy. I spend too much time playing games on my phone or perusing social media. I get sucked into watching too much TV and I neglect my chores or responsibilities around the house. When my creative bucket is filled with a fun hobby, I have energy and I am motivated.
I don’t think I need to write out a SMART goal or a detailed resolution for 2020. My commitment for 2020 is to regularly Sharpen the Saw by maintaining at least one hobby and maybe even try out a new one!
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