Saying Goodbye To The 2010s

Ready or not, New Year’s is coming at us fast, and this year is special because we’re saying goodbye to the 2010s, the decade where we did most of our growing up. The end of a decade sparks more questions than your typical New Year’s considerations of whether or not you spent enough time at the gym or texted your parents enough. A decade defines a big chunk of our lives. Ten years ago, most of us were in elementary school learning how to read. Ten years from now, we’ll have jobs, families and a real sense of where our lives are going. Our New Year’s reflections are going to be extreme this year as we consider the past ten years and look forward to the next ten. 

Now let’s talk New Year’s resolutions. As a concept, setting goals at the end of each year is great. In reality, New Year’s resolutions end up being an excuse to beat ourselves up for our mistakes and tell ourselves that our problems will magically be fixed at midnight on January 1st. When we set New Year’s resolutions, we tend to set our expectations too high. We won’t wake up on the first day of 2020 suddenly knowing how to eat healthy or having unlocked the secret to not procrastinating. So how do we make our New Year’s resolutions worthwhile instead of another thing to feel bad about when the next New Years rolls around? 

First, we don’t need New Years as an excuse to make changes in our lives. The end of the year serves as a reminder that there are things we want to do differently, but it certainly isn’t required in deciding to improve something. Any day can be the day you wake up and decide to start reading for pleasure again or take a yoga class. Second, realize that change takes time and practice, and that’s okay. When we make our resolutions, we say things like “Next year I’ll lose ten pounds” or “Next year I’ll stop being so sad all the time,” but we say these things without any plans for how to actually make them happen. If you want to get into shape, start small and challenge yourself to work out and cook a few days out of the week. 

We have a few final reminders for you as you look back on your year and your decade. Regardless of what went wrong or what you wish you had done differently, some pretty incredible things happened too. As you say goodbye to the 2010s and hello to the 2020s, let the good things be your focus and orient your resolutions around how to create more good for yourself.