So Long 2023, Greetings and Salutations 2024

I admit it: I’m a resolution-maker.

Like many people, I’m spending the last few days of 2023 reflecting and projecting. And as I take a look back on my year and collect all I did and didn’t do into a pile of learning experiences that will guide me into 2024, I’m excited to open my Google doc and polish up my list of New Year’s resolutions.

There, I said it. I’m a resolution-maker.

I used to set New Year’s resolutions, but in 2017 I switched tactics and opted for a word of the year instead of detailed lists of goals. That one-word trend continued for years and included the words Balance, Wellness, Grounded, Wholeness, Patience and Breathe.

I loved my words, and over time I connected them into a meditative mantra that I repeated when I was stressed or when I set intentions in my hot yoga classes. I even enjoyed the process of brainstorming them, making extensive lists of words until the perfect one jumped out at me.

But last year, when it came time to come up with a word for 2023, my fingers kept typing phrases instead of words. I thought maybe my brain was trying to tell me to search for the word that encompassed a theme within my bullet points, but I finally admitted I was looking at a list of very specific resolutions. So I declared my word of 2023 to be Specificity, allowing me to embrace both a word of the year and my list of resolutions.

Turns out, whether because I was in need of a change or because it was simply the right timing for what was going on in my life, I loved my resolutions as much as I once loved my words of the year. And they worked really well for me. For the most part.

Looking back at my list, I’m thrilled to see I met almost all of my professional resolutions. I surpassed some key numbers in my very big, all-consuming annual work project. I created an author website all by myself. I had beta readers critique my manuscript. I sent out 60 pitches for essays, with a handful that resulted in publication. And as you can see, I started a Substack.

I even went above and beyond some goals, completing not just the third draft of my memoir manuscript, but my fifth, and not just writing a query letter and book proposal, but actually jumping into the query trenches and sending them out to agents.

What I’m not thrilled about? I accomplished nearly none of my health and wellness resolutions. I did not start meditating regularly. I did not start practicing yoga again since my hot yoga studio closed. I did not figure out how to reduce the frequency of my chronic headaches. I did not get out of the house and socialize more.

But instead of beating myself up over it, I’m adding those things to my pile of learning experiences, analyzing why they didn’t happen and what I can do differently to make them happen next year.

So yes, I’m a resolution-maker. My 2024 list is complete with personal and professional resolutions, and I’ve already set some things in motion to achieve goals in early January to position myself for positive momentum. 

Back in 2017, I wrote a blog post about why I was choosing a word of the year, why I had become so anti-New Year’s resolutions. I wrote:

“Those grand plans and bulleted lists I once wrote down and promised myself would come to fruition throughout the new year did nothing but leave me with a sense that those resolutions had set me up for failure. The specificity left me with an all-or-nothing mentality. The lack of wiggle room I unknowingly built into those resolutions ultimately led me to abandon the resolutions altogether.”

That’s why my latest resolutions are all lofty yet realistic, built in with both specificity and wiggle room. And as I reread my own quote from 2017, I’ve added one more to the very top of my list, one that can be applied to every facet of my life, that outweighs everything else on the list no matter what happens or doesn’t happen in 2024.

There is no failure. It’s all learning experiences.

Happy New Year, my friends! Wishing you all happiness, health and a wealth of learning experiences!