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I keep New Year’s resolutions about as well as I juggle fire sticks, sumo wrestle, and hunt unicorns. I am horrible at it, or at least I would be if I tried. I probably did set a resolution for 2020, however, for all of the ice cream in the world, I could not tell you what it was.
Did I want to read more or run faster? Did I have a goal to cook more healthy meals for my family or learn a new skill? I have absolutely no idea.
And you know what? It doesn’t matter.
I may or may not have met my New Year’s resolution but I accomplished so many things last year that I couldn’t even imagine at the end of 2019.
I think we can give everyone a free pass on any sort of plans or resolutions they made in the beginning of 2020. We didn’t know what was coming.
In a normal year, we may have hoped to be more mindful of our eating habits. However, we had no idea that in 2020 I would be stuck at home with our children and that baking breads and cookies would be turned into lessons about counting eggs and an opportunity to teach kitchen vocabulary.
Before 2020, no one would have considered avoiding bars, grocery stores, and churches as an accomplishment but we made tough decisions to keep our families safe. We sacrificed much needed vacations and hugs and I am proud of our ability to ditch our old routines and adapt to new circumstances.
We didn’t know that our goal of reading more literature would be met by reading The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas over and over again.
Instead of learning to knit, we learned that tie-dying with two children under the age of 4 and one adult is a terrible idea.
However, we also learned that we are resilient, creative, and strong. It may not have been pretty and it may not have been easy, but we made it.
This year I have decided not to bother making a resolution that I will inevitably forget about in a few months. Although resolutions can motivate us to make changes, they do not always help us show gratitude and appreciation. When we are looking to make changes, we tend to focus on the things we are missing instead of the things we have. 2020 taught me that when life is running smoothly, I tend to take things for granted and in times of struggle it is easy to minimize blessings.
It doesn’t take too much brain power to list things that could have gone better in 2020, but with a little effort, we can also come up with some examples worthy of gratitude.
I wish my students were able to be in school everyday, but I am grateful for the technology that has allowed them to learn safely at home. I wish I could visit my parents, but I facetime with them more than I ever have before. Working at home with my kids was really hard, but I loved sharing my interests of baking, reading, and hiking with them. I am disappointed that I let my son watch a little bit of TV every single day in an attempt to save my sanity and do some dishes. However, I can’t help but laugh when I think about the British accent he developed because he watched too much Peppa Pig.
Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, I want to focus on showing gratitude for the things, experiences, and people who have made my life better. I want to remember that good things can happen during challenging times and that acts of kindness can make a huge difference. I also want to take time to appreciate myself and all of the things that make me great. My goal for 2021 is to continue to struggle through the hardships that will leak into the new year from the last and to also make a little more effort to show gratitude for the people moving us forward.