10 Reasons I am Hopeful for 2022

I had my ups and downs with 2021 – probably like with many other people. I think the COVID fatigue has been hitting me. I thought the pandemic would be over months ago, but here we are. The biggest moments of darkness for me came in other problems besides the pandemic such as depression, job anxiety, low self-esteem, doubts about my future, drama with loved ones (which is normal for family), not seeing loved ones due to the pandemic, not seeing friends, either, because of the pandemic, feeling low, not having enough money, feeling useless – the list can go on for me. I think I have found 10 hopeful reasons, though, for why 2022 will give me some hope in my own personal life.

1. My boyfriend

He has saved me at my lowest points and has made me feel like I am capable of doing anything. He was truly a blessing in disguise and I have hope he will help make 2022 a better year for me.

2. My new job

My new job started in October 2021. I just began here, but I hope it gives me better opportunities as it has already given me a better pay raise.

3. The COVID-19 heroes

I do believe, in the midst of chaos, and with honestly the back and forth of government protocols, that we will eventually get through this because of the nurses and healthcare workers who have not given up.

4. My mental health care team

I am starting to work with a regular therapist and OCD specialist to help guide me on my mental health journey to feeling better and controlling my anxiety that takes a toll on my life.

5. My parents

They give me support no matter how much I can be a pain to them. I have said things I regret but they are always there to help me.

6. My boyfriend’s family

My second family who I love, and lets me call them whenever I need them.

7. My loyal and hopeful new friends

Friends come and go. I hope some new ones stick around like the old ones.

8. My schooling

I am getting my master’s in human services and finish in June 2022. I am hopeful this will open more opportunities for me.

9. Exercising

This is cheesy, but working out keeps me in check with my body and health.

10. Sleep

This one may sound odd. When I am asleep, my troubles disappear for those moments and I am fine with that. It does not take away from the problems and it gives me relief to not think about something.

2022 is going to be an interesting year. We are almost two years into the pandemic. Mental health is on the rise. I have to take care of myself not for the sake of the pandemic but for myself. I am hoping 2022 can truly be a good year for me and that it will help change my life for the better. May 2022 bring me joy and happiness along with the health that I deserve.

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About the Author

Molly Rose lives in PA but is originally from NY. She wrote for Odyssey Online in 2017 and has now started her journey with Puckermob. Molly is getting her Master’s degree online in Human Services at Capella University. She is an advocate for individuals with disabilities. Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Tips for Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions in 2022

Every New Year brings a new set of resolutions. With every December comes a final balance of our accomplishments and setbacks that we are constantly reflecting on when creating a strategy for the upcoming year. If you’ve realized that sticking to your resolutions has been beyond challenging, you need a comprehensive guide like his one to guide you through this journey called determination. Keep on reading to find out how you can easily stick to your New Year’s resolutions.

Work on your resolution with someone else

Achieving a goal is always easier when you have a partner with the same goal to keep you motivated. That is especially true if your buddy is more determined and inspired to stick to their resolution. That’s why you should have a mutual resolution that you and your friend will try your best to stick to. We suggest you make a competition out of it to see who gets to achieve the goal first and stick to it the longest.

Set a realistic goal

If one of your resolutions includes breaking a habit that’s been a part of your life for years, you need to prepare for a challenging year. One of the ways to stick to a resolution is to set a realistic goal for yourself. You can’t expect to quit smoking in 3 months, for instance. Prolong the deadline to 6 months and allow yourself to reach your goal gradually. You didn’t develop the habit overnight, and you can’t expect to break it that soon either.

Look for a meaningful resolution

New Year’s resolutions tend to be focused on personal development. So why not make one of your New Year’s resolutions to look for meaningful activities? One of those can be to start donating to charity or helping an organization raise funds for its cause. These events help acquire money, and White collar boxing for charity is one of the best examples of such an event. Help others by getting in shape, building muscles and learning how to defend yourself and do one of the most meaningful things in 2022.

Use a vision board

Are you one of those people who need an effective reminder of who you want to become? Visual aids will help you visualize your goal and achieve it more easily. Create a vision board of all of your resolutions so that you can take a look at them every day. It will be a powerful reminder of what you promised you’d do in the year ahead. On top of that, it will drive you forward, help you monitor your progress, and help you stick to your resolutions.

Find a fun resolution

From quitting to bite your nails or smoke to eating healthier foods, some resolutions will seem more challenging because they won’t offer any fun experience. So, instead of focusing on all the negative aspects, you’d like to improve, start thinking about new things that you’d like to try. Some of your New Year’s resolutions can include learning something new, bringing more adrenaline into your life or stepping out of your comfort zone. As long as it’s fun, it’ll be less challenging to stick to your resolution.

It’s almost time to think of your New Year’s resolutions, so you better think well. Make sure you’re writing down resolutions you’ll be able to achieve in a timely fashion and without much fuss. The more realistic the resolution, the easier it will be to stick to it. So, if you need a buddy to help you out, look for one. Create a vision board or look for fun resolutions if you want to make them more achievable.o view the HTML code. You can then copy/paste the code into your own website or blog.

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New Year Resolution: Growing into Your Best Self

Every year we sit down and think about what our New Year’s resolution is going to be. And every year it mostly revolves one way or another to be something that changes us to make us better. We make resolutions that are anything from losing weight or quitting smoking to spending more time with our families or finding a new job. The problem is that most of us who make a resolution abandon it within the first three months. We tend to get distracted, lose focus or decide that it is just too hard to accomplish our goal. The latter tends to flow from a place where we are not confident in our abilities to get the goal accomplished.

Make a Pros and Cons list

Think for a minute about wanting to quit smoking. When you think about it, the first response you have is that you can do it. You make a list of things you can try whether it is quitting cold turkey, using the patches, exercise, online support groups, or going to see a doctor for the pills that help you stop. You make a pros and cons list of why it is important for you to stop.

The pros include feeling better, getting healthy, or saving money. The cons include getting lung cancer, wasting money, or you can’t run a quarter of a mile without feeling like your lungs are going to burst out of your chest. All of these options, pros, and cons just pile up in your mind to reinforce that you can do it, you can quit smoking.

An alternative to smoking could be getting involved with a new hobby and not having time to think about your vice. Instead of smoking a cigarette or two, you can grow plants indoors by using grow tents. Plants require a lot of time and attention from you and this will prove an effective way to overcome cigarette cravings.

The Risk of Giving Up

Three months later your car breaks down, you lose your job, or you go through a bad breakup. Here come the triggers. Now you are stressed out or depressed. The first thing you reach for is a cigarette, or maybe you think that smoking a cigar or a vape is better so you go that route. You don’t even realize at the time that you are inhaling nicotine regardless of how you are inhaling it. You just think that because you are just needing a little hit if you don’t pick up the cigarette that you are so used to, that it will not affect your goal.

However, the end result is you are right back where you started on the first day of the new year and you have broken your resolution. Now most people at this point, just say they just proved that they can’t do it, so they lay down their resolution and say maybe they will be stronger next year. But what if you had help? What if there was a training workshop that could help you from the beginning of the idea of what resolution you were going to make? I know you are thinking to yourself that there is nothing like that. But there is. It’s called assertiveness training.

Join a Workshop that Can Help

The definition of assertiveness training is a method of training individuals to act in a bold self-confident manner; is a form of behavior therapy designed to help people empower themselves.The assertiveness training workshops have been around since the women’s movement of the 1970s that dealt with mental health and personal growth groups. It grew out of the realization that many women in the movement were hindering themselves by their lack of ability to be assertive. Today’s assertiveness training workshops are used as part of communication training for such programs as substance abuse treatment, social skills training, vocational programs, and responding to harassment.

The purpose is to teach people to identify and act on their desires, needs, and opinions while remaining respectful of others. There is a broad approach to the training that can be used for different personal, academic, health care, and work situations. Some of the areas that the training helps include conflict resolution, realistic goal setting, and stress management. It also helps with our personal choices that include, but are not limited to, quitting the use of drugs and alcohol, and self-care. In addition to that, you could start attending Job Training Courses which provide you with career development, enrich your mind, and motivate you to go on with your goals instead of giving up.

These go right in line with our example of our New Year’s resolution to quit smoking along with any number of resolutions you want to set for yourself this year. Add an assertiveness training workshop to your resolution and by the end of the year, mark that goal as accomplished.

About The Author

Freya is a Math teacher, Yoga enthusiast, and a beloved mother of three lovely daughters. She is always looking for ways to grow and help others around her thrive through self-learning, meditation, and physical fitness. When she is not teaching or spending time with her family, Freya regularly writes on topics related to self-improvement and women empowerment.

How to Keep Your New Years Resolutions: 6 Tips

New Year Resolve

The start of a new year is often formative, a time of growth, change and development. How do you keep your New Years resolutions? People around the country make resolutions to improve their lives. That said, about 80 percent have given up on these resolutions by February.

Looking at the odds, is it even possible to make a New Year’s resolution you can keep? The short answer: It is. You just have to take a strategic approach and change your mindset. So what’s the big secret?

Follow these seven tips and you’ll fully commit to your intended lifestyle changes in 2020 and beyond.

1. Keep Your Goals Simple

Many people see the new year as a time for change. But you shouldn’t completely overhaul your current lifestyle. It’s much harder to keep your New Years resolutions and stick to a plan of that scale.

Instead, hone in on one or two main goals and go from there. You can add additional milestones once you’ve made the first few into a reality.

2. Break Down Resolutions

Maybe you’ve resolved to run a marathon this year. You won’t just be able to do so immediately after deciding to go for it. Instead, you need a more digestible plan that makes your path to success clear.

So, in the case of a marathon run, you might make it a goal to run three times per week, concluding with an extra-long run to push your distance further and further. You can do the same with just about any other goal, too.

If you want to become a better cook, start by preparing one dinner a week to improve your skills. As you become more comfortable, add more meals into the fold. Otherwise, you might lose confidence or patience and give up on your vision altogether. These methods will help you keep your New Years resolutions.

3. Do Your Research

On that note, you can’t just approach and keep your New Year’s resolutions with intuition alone. Instead, you have to take time to research how you can accomplish what you want to do. With that information, you can plan the best course of action.

For example, if you want to do something more abstract, like becoming more sustainable, start to learn more now and see how you can implement eco-friendly principles into your life.

With an impending home improvement project, you could learn more about sustainable materials. You can use something like bamboo for your renovations, reducing your impact in a subtle but substantial way.

4. Add in a Few Rewards

In order for you to keep your New Year’s resolutions, you shouldn’t expect to be strict forever. Most people can’t stick to a plan so stringent. Instead, fill out your calendar with checkpoints at which you’ll treat yourself for a job well done.

For instance, you might want to reduce how much you spend on new clothes. Rather than saying, “No shopping until the end of the year,” reward yourself by allowing for a single purchase every couple of months.

That way, you won’t get the itch to go on a spree before then and overdo it. Strict limitations can push us to rebel in a big way. And then we cannot maintain your New Years resolutions.

5. Collaborate With Someone Else

Moral support can keep you pushing toward your goals. So, try and find someone in your life who’s resolving to keep the same habits as you. You can keep each other going, or you can strike up a friendly competition so that you remain inspired and engaged.

This idea’s a great one if you hope to accomplish a fitness goal this year. Workout buddies tend to get better results because they hold each other accountable for their exercise schedules.

6. Falter, But Don’t Give Up

You won’t have a completely perfect year in pursuit of your resolution — that we can promise you now. Everyone will have slip-ups along the way, and such moments can be demoralizing. However, you shouldn’t let such dips define you and all of your hard work.

Acknowledge that you made a mistake but focus on getting yourself back on track. You can do so by looking at all that you’ve already gotten done, rather than concentrating on your momentary failure. With the right mindset, you can hop right back on track and continue moving toward your goals.

Make the Journey Yours

Finally, you should keep your New Year’s resolutions and not place them in anyone else’s hands but your own. You can always bring in friends or family to support you along the way, but you have to accept that it’s you at the helm.

That kind of thought can be a double-edged sword. You can no longer blame others for your setbacks along the way. Even so, owning your path means you get to relish in your success when it’s finally yours. No one else made it happen but you.

Let that thought drive you on as you begin the process of planning for and pursuing your New Year’s resolutions. With the above tips, you’re well on your way to making your vision for the new year a reality.