Everyone talks about making plans for the next year. This can look like creating photo albums, new year resolutions, and bucket lists as strategic plans to somehow transform someone’s lifestyle. I love challenging the norm. I view New Year’s simply as a time change. The annoying thing about New Year's resolutions is that the guilt starts setting in at 12 a.m. on January 1st. I want to help people get rid of that new years guilt by planning less.
I am a planner. Planning is a symptom of being a cautious person. One thing I know is being cautious helps me make sure I am making the right decisions. I don’t tend to do things without thinking of 5 million possibilities. Planning is something I do when talking to people, completing assignments and while writing blog posts. Sometimes planning blocks the beauty in life. Is planning always a good thing, or could we live by the whims of our hearts?
Saving yourself in the end
Prediction of life events helps make a person feel better about their decisions. But how often do you see the plans made in your head come into fruition exactly as you planned it? Probably 0% of the time. So why even plan? I challenge you to change this planning dynamic in the year of 2024. Planning can help for the future version of yourself to thrive strategically. But strategies are not always authentic to the person you want to be. I mean who wants to make mistakes? Nobody. But there is a way to thrive without strategy in the next year. It’s called spirituality.
Spirituality is a term that describes a feeling that there is something greater that has a say in our life events without our interjection. This can take forms such as a single being like God, to objects such as tarot cards, and symbolic animals such as the maneki-neko. Spiritual connections do the planning, and all a person has to do is live. This is a less hands on approach to changing a lifestyle instead of planning it. Spirituality ultimately helps people create an ideal lifestyle but there are other options.
What would you like to create?
If you’re not a spiritual person you believe life is in your own hands. What life have you created for yourself already and how have you created this life in the past? Maybe it is time to start creating a life that you could never see yourself living instead of creating a life that you're used to. It doesn’t help to continue living in a life that you never wanted. People are unhappy with the plans they have made once they achieve the life they thought they wanted. I think if you want to take your life into your own hands creation of a lifestyle is based on decisions made in the moment. Not through yearly plans.
Why can’t we actively change our lives with each and every moment? In the abstract of the article “Mindfulness and Behavior Change” it states changing behaviors in the moment can be done by “non-judgment of present-moment experience.” This means that people can actively change their lives moment by moment instead of year by year. Today you could get up and create your own dance routine or randomly book a flight to a neighboring state. There doesn’t need to be a routine or a plan to change your lifestyle. Changing your life around can be done at a moment’s whim.
I encourage you all to start making life changes in a different manner for 2024. Stop fretting about the next year. Your life will turn out just fine if you genuinely work on creating the life you want in new ways. But I think there is a way to do this other than just new year’s resolutions. Maybe you can try becoming more spiritual leading to less control over your life. Or you can try to have control over your life by making life-altering decisions moment by moment instead of planning year by year. Embrace the fluidity of life, whether guided by spiritual connections or spontaneous decisions, and remember that every moment holds the potential to shape the fulfilling life you seek.