By Bhargavi Venkataraman

At the beginning of December, everyone is getting into the holiday mood. This means holiday shopping, delicious food, large gatherings and, of course, thinking about New Year Resolutions! Every year, my family and I get excited to sit down and write resolutions for the upcoming year. We make a big deal about the activity and carefully ponder how we would like the next year to look. Then, we write a beautiful list of these goals and paste it on our wall to stare at during the coming year. I am unsure if we were always successful in accomplishing these goals. Still, I believe the process offers an opportunity for some well-needed reflection regarding what we want for ourselves. Over the years, I believe the goals have gotten a lot less finish-line focused and instead focus on improvement in general. I am following that trend this year and have created a list of important goals I aim to follow through with. I have listed them below.

• Journal Regularly: This past year brought a lot of stressors for everyone, and I was going through some significant changes in my life. In my program, we do a lot of reflections which I have found to be very therapeutic for me. So, I thought the natural next step was journaling. I have been keeping with it for the past couple of months, which has been a pleasant surprise as I thought I would not be able to continue with the habit. I think one of the factors which helped me journal regularly was that I was not too strict about my frequency or quantity of writing. I sometimes write a page a day for a week continuously; other times, I write a small paragraph every couple of days. This upcoming year, I plan to continue with the habit. I want to graduate to write reasonably regularly. I hope it will provide me with some emotional clarity and also document the happenings of my life so that I can look back at them in the future.
• Exercise Frequently: This is a very common goal for most people, and like them, I have had this goal on my list every year for nearly the past decade. However, these past couple of years, I have really seen the importance of exercise after being cooped up for so long during the pandemic. The past year, I have tried getting at least some semblance of exercise every day such as through biking, going on the treadmill, or a simple walk. I have found that I am refreshed and more motivated whenever I do this, so I am hoping to implement this habit in the new year.
• Try Something New Every Week: This is a new goal on my list. I thought of this because of something one of my professors tells us every class. She recommends that we do one small thing that is new or weird to appreciate the little delights in life. For example, brushing with the wrong hand. I loved the idea and thought it would be interesting if I can keep something like that going long term. So, I want to try one new thing every week. It could be something small like learning how to count in a new language or something big like attempting a self-portrait. I want to document the process and look back at it in the new year.
• Adopt a Vegan Day of the Week: This goal comes from an exercise I did for a class I took on sustainability where I was told to go vegan for the days. I am already vegetarian so I thought the switch would be easy but I found it surprisingly difficult to cut out dairy products from my life. However, it felt really good to make the switch. I thought that it helped with both my physical and mental health, being able to appreciate my contribution to a more sustainable environment. So, I want to bring this energy into the new year and try out vegan life for one day a week. This way, I can ease into the lifestyle, while also taking a step to contributing to a better environment.

This is currently where I am at with my goals. I am sure that going into the new year, I will have more on my list. Some others that I am currently thinking of is adopting a “Sunday reset” routine which I have seen a lot of on social media, and also setting up a habit to read for 15 minutes in the night before sleeping so that I can get off screens for that time. I hope to build and sustain these habits in the new year and encourage you all to make your own list soon to envision what you want 2023 to look like for you!