Liz Armbrecht

I have to get this out of the way: Your new year can start whenever you want it to. Companies track time by more than one way (I hate you, fiscal year, you’re so confusing), so you can too. Maybe the calendars at the Barnes & Noble go from January 1 to December 31, but you can celebrate the beginning of the year according to a religious calendar or the rhythms of your own life.

New Year’s Eve is my second favorite holiday after Halloween. I love the feeling of a fresh slate, a new calendar, the width and breadth and depth of possibility that stretches out in front of you from January first. Plus, I freaking love champagne and challenging myself to stay up until midnight.

I was so good in goal setting for this year. I took myself out on a personal retreat in November. I reflected on my 2023 and planned out my 2024. Three weeks later, I found out I was going to uproot everything and move to a different city with my husband as he pursues more education. The glories of the NRMP!

So by the time the ball dropped, I still didn’t have my goals reworked. Much of what I had set out to do was nulled and voided by this move. Plus, moving cities and preparing our current house to be rented out was going to take up much too much time to concentrate on growth and development in the areas I had previously selected.

So yes, I love a new year and all the opportunity it opens up. But you know what I hate? Pivoting. I don’t like changing once I’ve set on a course. If something gets written down on the task list, it takes a lot of deep breathing to simply erase a task instead of crossing it out, done.

Boy did I have to do a lot of erasing and rewriting to do to figure out what I wanted to accomplish this year. Growth and development, I suppose!

Last year as 2023 crested the horizon, I decided I needed more fun resolutions on my list. No more savings goals, fitness goals, word count goals for me. (Not knocking these kinds of goals, but I was kinda sorta setting some unreasonable goals and then punishing myself when I didn’t accomplish them.) So last year I got my first tattoo, as an example of what a fun New Year’s Resolution looks like to me.

And then I immediately forgot that resolution to resolve to do more fun things and went back to my toxic overcommitting habits while planning for 2024! So maybe this move was the universe’s way of forcing me to reset. To relook at that goal list and decide if there was enough fun on there. It took a look at me and asked, “are your priorities really in the right place?”

So for 2024, I will be happy if I accomplish these three things:

1. Get all of my friends’ birthdays on my calendar so I can wish them happy birthday on their special day. (Birthdays are very special to me.)
2. Once a month, have a dedicated adventure. Go to a new place, try something new, even try a new food at an old faithful restaurant where I always order the #5 combo.
3. Donate or throw out clothes that don’t fit and replace with clothes that make me feel amazing (or not at all). YES I KNOW, I’m sneaking a moving-related goal in there, but I promise there’s a mental health benefit in here too!!

Take good care of yourself. Commit to some fun resolutions. Commit to no resolutions. Share what you’re thinking about in 2024 in the comments below and thank you for joining me in my journey.

-Liz