You Don’t Need a New Year for a Fresh Start
Hours, weeks, months; how long will your recent New Year’s resolution last? Each year, many of us give into the pressure of the long-standing tradition of adopting a new practice, or improving, changing, or eliminating an unfavorable trait. From goals to achieve, bad habits to break, money to save, and diets to start; we often have the best intentions, but most resolutions end up being short lived, rarely make it past January.
Unfortunately, when we go off course of our desired path, we tend to focus on failure. We forget those inspirational messages we often were told as children, or those that we continue to repeat to our children or grandchildren, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Calling attention to failure or quitting these resolutions can also be detrimental to one’s mental well-being. Therefore, here are a few tips to best keep our sights on achieving, rather than facing disappointment.
Have fun with your resolutions. Remember it’s all about the approach, so don’t view your resolution as a major chore. Start by setting achievable goals that are meaningful to you and create a plan of action to make them happen. Involve your family or friends. Add in challenges to make your resolutions more fun and reward yourself by celebrating small milestones reached either daily or weekly. Don’t wait months or an entire year to reflect on what you have accomplished.
Set yourself up for success, not failure. Don’t take on more than you can handle or select a resolution that is unobtainable. Prepare yourself for slight detours or departures from your resolutions. Find ways you can make up for it. For example, if your resolution is to spend time at the gym or exercise daily, and you happen to miss a day, put in a little more time the following day.
Keep both health and safety in mind. When creating your resolutions, consider not just your physical but also your mental health. Consider adopting positive, self-care practices like journaling, reading, getting adequate sleep each night, staying hydrated, etc. As for safety, vow to do little things that can make a big impact on the safety of yourself and others. This may include wearing your seatbelt every time you are behind the wheel and ensuring your passengers do the same or leaving a few extra minutes early for work each morning to avoid rushing and be able to account for unexpected obstacles you could encounter, like traffic or inclement weather.
Remember, it’s not the end of the world if a resolution does not stick or changes course. At this point, you may have already broken your 2023 resolutions. Here’s the good news – tomorrow is a brand-new day. Whether you start right now, next week, or next month, it is never too late to adopt a new goal. The path to change and self-improvement is not always easy. Therefore, instead of jumping into a resolution, use the month of January as a time of self-reflection. Consider goals that will enrich your life. Strive to accomplish things that bring you joy, like finding a new hobby, vowing to volunteer more, or adopting better time management practices to allow more time with family and friends.
While teaching children about the importance of their mental health, many of these messages are woven into the mental well-being and stress management curriculum offered at Progressive Agriculture Safety Day® programs throughout North America.
The “Safety Day Corner” is a safety message by the Progressive Agriculture Foundation® (PAF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, with the mission to provide education, training, and resources to make farm, ranch, and rural life safer and healthier for all children and their communities. Recognized as the largest rural safety and health education program for children in North America, the Foundation’s Progressive Agriculture Safety Day® program, has reached more than 1.9 million youth since 1995. For more information about PAF and its programs, visit: www.progressiveag.org.