2022 is beginning in only a few days.

Are you not sure of how to approach designing your dream year?

Fed up of chasing the same goals and habits which never stick?

I’m changing the record this time around.

No really, I am.

I’m starting with the ‘2022 new year, new me revolution’.

I am breaking up with goals that restrict me.

There is enough restriction going on in the world without me imposing anymore on myself.

I will be viewing goals more as a navigation system to align me in my preferred direction of travel, that is well-being.

Planning for 2022:

The plan is that there is no ‘plan’.

If 2021 has taught or demanded anything from me, it is to expect the unexpected and to embrace and adapt to change.

From setting and achieving various milestones this year, I found that factors outside of my control impacted my ability to achieve them. Or, that they were anti-climatic and did not feel as I expected.

So this year, I am looking ahead and identifying how I want to feel so I can design my year around that.

This means that no matter what goes on in the world, I can change and adapt and find what feels good to me.

*Insert audible sigh of relief knowing that I don’t necessarily need to be at the gym at 6am for it to be a ‘good day’. And, that I can mix things up respective of how much energy I have and what’s going on in my life.*

Sounds good, huh?

Where does this approach come from?

Each year I have considered new years resolutions, I have bought in to someone else’s idea of what ‘healthy’, ‘good’ and ‘balanced’ looks like.

This year I am creating space for change. I am throwing out the usual expense of purchasing the healthy cookbooks, workout guides, meal plans, habit and fitness trackers that usually ‘get’ me at this time of year. Oh, and the guilt and shame of having not updated them after the first week of Feb.

This year, I am making space for my own preferences and my own idea of what balance looks like.

This year, I am finding out what feels good to me.

Have you ever wondered why there isn’t a one size fits all?

Why there isn’t a guide book to life?

Why there isn’t a meal plan to beat all meal plans?

It’s because we’re supposed to figure it out, and lean into what feels best to us.

From here on out, I am releasing the pressure of having to completely re-design my life, wardrobe and career each year. I am heading out on a quest to find out what works for me and where I am in my life right now.

Are you coming with me?

“Get a routine that is baggy enough to live in.”

Matt Haig – English novelist and journalist.

All aboard!

List how you want to feel in the following areas of your life and a brief reason why.

• How do I want to feel in my life?

• How do I want to feel in my body?

• How do I want to feel in my relationships?

• How do I want to feel in my mind?

• How do I want to feel whilst working?

You can create your own questions for other specific habits and goals too, for me, these key questions capture what is important to me.

When answering these questions, use positive terms to affirm what you wish to experience rather than affirming what you do not wish to experience.

For example, I want to feel ‘at ease’, ‘at peace’, ‘safe’, ‘connected’, ‘grounded’, ‘loved’ rather than ‘less-stressed’, ‘less-worried’, ‘less-insecure’ and ‘less-lonely’.

Identifying a brief reason why you are pursuing these goals can help to motivate you and remind you what you are working towards.

Taking back your power

So, you’ve identified what you want to experience, now have a think about what could allow you to get this feeling.

For example, if it’s that you want to feel more lighter and flexible in your body so you feel more engerised and able to do things. There are endless activities which could bring you this feeling of wellbeing…

This could include looking at:

• What foods you eat

• How much sugar you consume

• The time you eat each day

• The amount of hours you sleep

• Your sleeping position

• How much water you drink

• How much caffeine you consume

• What time you wake up

• How many hours of sunlight you get

• How stressful your life is

• How much of the day you spend sitting vs standing vs moving

• How often you move your body e.g. walking, dancing, weight-lifting, yoga and swimming.

These are many things which can impact and move you towards that specific goal.

Closing your eyes before you go to sleep and imagining what it would feel like once you’ve achieved your goals can also bring you closer to them. I will write more on how I have utilised #visualisation to achieve my goals in the new year.

Brainstorming ideas of how you can achieve how want to feel as opposed to a milestone goal, can gift you with the ability to be more present everyday.

Sit down with a sheet of paper and get a ‘feel’ for how you want your year to play out. Then wake up everyday and choose yourself, choose feeling good everyday, choose to have an emotionally fulfilling year.

Reaching for ‘feel good‘ feelings throughout your day can allow you to identify how you’re feeling and act on what you can do or not do, to help yourself feel better.

Working towards a feeling gives you much more autonomy and flexibility for any changes along the way, including any which may be out of your control such as national restrictions.

For example: You might not be able to go to the a specific gym class but could you call your grandma? Sometimes we might not be able to work on a goal that feels important to us, we can still choose to act in positive ways which leave us feeling good.

In turn you get to know yourself better, you’ll become curious to try new things and generally become (in my opinion,) a bit more interesting than someone who follows someone else’s idea of healthy. That’s on #individualisation.

Yes, it is more effort to create a conscious existence for emotional fulfilment than popping a cookbook in your online shopping basket as to solve all your problems, but if you take a genuine interest in yourself, in feeling good, in finding balance and in feeling healthier, over time you will find your own flow that suits your life.

Can you see how much easier and lighter this feels?

My chest doesn’t feel tight in reading all the many ways this ‘goal’ can be satisfied, like it does setting alarms for 5am and over-booking my Outlook calendar.

That 2022 feeling

2022 is about identifying what feels good to you and bringing in more of what you want to experience in your life.

It is the beginning of a quest to find more about yourself and the world that comes from a place of curiousity of what feels good to you.

Whatever restrictions are placed upon us, I am revolting in creating a limitless life for myself this year which begins with not imposing the typical new year resolutions.

We are leaving goals based upon societal pressures behind in 2021 and creating a future of individualisation, stepping into our truth and living out our most authentic selves.

I hope you get the memo.

Are you setting goals slightly differently this year? Comment below and join in on the 2022 new year, new me revolution.