a non-sucky resolution plan

New Years resolutions are the time for change. This is the time when we switch out bad habits with good ones, and we start living the life that inspires our Pinterest boards.

But New Year's resolutions suck.

My plan is to wait for the "right time" to start switching up my habits, to start going for runs and to start having a healthy morning routine. I keep putting off all of these positive changes to my lifestyle because I am waiting for the "right time". I like to wait until I am feeling caught up with all my other responsibilities and chores. I want to feel organized in most other areas of my life before I can start to focus on incorporating changes into my lifestyle, but I am still waiting for the "right time".

This plan sucks too.

Hopefully, this is not just me who makes this mistake every day, thinking that soon will be the "right time", and I can start changing my habits. I think a lot of us continue to put off these changes we want to make in our lives over and over again, and I am honestly getting annoyed.

(Pinterest)

It seems so stupid. If we want to change something about our lives, then why don't we? What are we waiting for? If we want to start reading more, then why aren't we making the time? If we want to become a morning person, why aren't we setting an earlier alarm? Because, for most of us, we are waiting for the "right time". But, it does not exist. Life is unorganized, and it is very rare that I feel caught up with my responsibilities and chores. And, yet, I keep waiting for this nonexistent "right time".

Sometimes, I think this lack of acting on our personal goals is a result of the anxiety that's making us hyperfixated on our responsibilities. When anxiety takes on the form of hyperfixation, I think it can easily go unnoticed as a problem. We convince ourselves that our responsibilities truly are that important, so we believe we are not overworking ourselves or focusing too much on the stress and pressure. We believe that the lack of time to act on our personal goals is just part of life. However, if we take a second to think and breathe, we might realize that the pressure we are feeling is actually anxiety, making us focus solely on those responsibilities.

As a result, this focus on our responsibilities leads us to believe that there is not enough time in the day to think about our personal goals. When we are thinking about our responsibilities, such as school or work, almost one -hundred percent of the time, we are convinced that we, sadly, must wait for the "right time" to eventually start changing our habits.

Once we can understand that we are, in fact, hyperfixating on our responsibilities and that we should not be spending this much of our time focusing on them, I think this can serve as a good reminder that we do have the time to act on our personal goals.

The next time that we have a personal goal that we want to implement into our lives but decide to put it off until the "right time", we can each remind ourselves that we do have the time now. Having the time to act on the personal habits, changes, and goals that we want for ourselves is deeply important. These are the things that no one else is going to make the time for besides us. These are the things that we do to take care of ourselves beyond the basic necessities, and I think this reminder can help us live fuller lives, lives full of accomplishing our personal goals and making the time to care for ourselves.

(Pinterest)

Overall, I think the importance of our other responsibilities and the stress and pressure that accompany them influence us to deem our lifestyle changes and personal goals as less important. When we have work to catch up on at our job or at school, we think that it's not the "right time" to act on our own personal, arguably more important, goals.

Instead of waiting around for the "right time" to change our habits or to be healthier or to start reading books, for instance, we should incorporate these changes into our lives daily. If you want to start a morning routine to wake up earlier, then set an alarm for tomorrow. If you want to start reading books, then stop by the library after work. You do have the time, and acting on your personal goals is just as important, if not more important than, your other responsibilities.

If we continue to wait around for the "right time" to change our lives, they will never change.