The Anxiety Diaries Volume 18: It’s 2020, What Is Your New Year’s Resolution?

For 2017 I created a long list of monthly goals for the year that I fully intended to keep up with. However, in typical life-throws-you-garbage-curveballs fashion I found my entire life turning upside down faster than Will Smith. In 2018 I made the simple goal of controlling my anger better and letting things go, and then this past year of 2019 I just wanted to be a better version of myself. I think that out of the 3 years listed I only accomplished 2019’s goal and that’s okay with me.

I have discovered in the last year that ‘goals’,’affirmations’ and ‘resolutions’ help to manage my anxiety. I have a daily to-do list that I try to follow and keep up with. It is a tab I keep open on my laptop (I am on it writing for work all day, but another method may work best for you) and it is organized into sections.

1. Self
This includes taking my vitamins, taking a shower, eat breakfast washing up, and other simple tasks.

2. Work
I am a freelancer so I like to have all of my work written out so I can see what needs to be done, and small reminders such as “send this invoice” or “reply to so and so’s email”

3. Blog/Brand
Social media and things for thenikkisin.com! Interview reminders and post ideas go in this section.

4. Social
Whom to connect with (I keep a list), events, plans I have made and phone calls to have.

5. Other
Eg. Stay off TikTok

However these are GOALS and not RESOLUTIONS. I believe your goals should be personal and you should work HARD to achieve them. They can be something as simple as “shower today” or something more difficult such as “get a promotion”. Let’s not forget of course that ‘goals’ and ‘resolutions’ are different but should both have positive results.

A resolution: a firm decision to do or not to do something for example “I will go to the gym” or “I will not smoke my juul”. Whereas a goal: is the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result such as “I will not buy a coffee today I will make it” or “I will respond to that email”.

So now it’s time to consider your resolution and perhaps align it WITH a goal. My first resolution is simple: create more, consume less. This was inspired by a dear friend once saying he wanted to do that and it struck a chord in me.

I want to make more of my own food, make stronger connections with the people I love, create more content, create BETTER content. I want to develop myself as person(mentally and physically), as a writer, as a sister, a partner, AND a daughter. I want to create MORE. The first step in this isn’t my recipe research. It is replacing the “I want tos” with “I will”.

My second resolution is to ask for assistance and not solutions (for most things). This is something I ave been implementing into my life over the last few months. Instead of asking someone to do something for me (i.e fix my laptop) I ask for advice on how to do it myself. My second resolution coincides with my first, because I want to create my own solutions.

So now I ask, what is YOUR 2020 resolution? Perhaps you are feeling hungover from last night so it is “I’m not going to drink again”?