Good intentions for 2025

Who doesn't hear it in December: the good resolutions for the new year. Some people are steadfast in it and others think it's nonsense. Because if you want to change something, you can do it right away, right? I completely agree with that. But when December comes to an end, a lot of good resolutions go through my head. Although I am (often) team I-can-hold-on-for-two-weeks, oops.

What are the most mentioned New Year's resolutions? I can think of a few myself. By the way, these are the resolutions I've ever had: quit smoking (I haven't done that for a few years now), exercise fanatically and read a lot of books. But what other resolutions do people have? I asked my new bestie ChatGPT for help. According to him (her?) these are the resolutions:

• Healthier living - more exercise, healthier eating, losing weight and quitting smoking
• Personal growth - learning new skills, reading more and taking up hobbies
• Financial Goals - Saving, Paying Off Debt, and Better Budgeting
• Less stress, more balance - more time for myself, less screen time and more time with family and friends
• Sustainability - producing less waste and living more sustainably
• Career and work - finding a new job, better work-life balance and being more productive

I would like to eat a bit healthier in the coming months. I saw a video about what sugar does to parasites in your body and since then I don't like sweets as much. If you follow me on Instagram you will see that I like to make fresh juices every few days. Since I discovered how good cayenne pepper is for you, I often add this, for example. Now this is explained very briefly, but it is genuinely fun to delve into this. Maybe I will infect you with my juice obsession. For me, eating healthier also includes: eating. I often forget to eat, super annoying. Of course, it is also not very good for your body, because you run on your reserves (too) often. So that is a good intention for 2025. But of course I have already started on that.

Good intentions for a short time

For many people, including myself, it is difficult to keep up a good intention. How is that possible? Why can't many people learn a new routine? The average time to learn a routine takes 66 days. That doesn't sound like much, but just think how difficult it is if you never cook for yourself, to keep this up for 66 days in a row from today. This is super tiring. It's not just the cooking, but also the shopping and cleaning up. If you never have to do this (luxury!), this suddenly becomes quite a chore. After a few weeks you will start to dread it and maybe the threshold will become so high that you just stop. I mean, acting like the permanent chef of Thuisbezorgd sounds much cooler then. This is where the bit of motivation comes in. Do you really want to cook for yourself that much, most likely eat healthier and save money? Or do you actually think it's fine the way it is? How motivated are you?

My resolutions or goals are often things I want, but are not a must. That's how I feel. And that's also the reason I quickly drop out. That could change, so I started looking into how I can stay motivated and I'll share these tips with you below!

• Set achievable goals : make sure your goals are SMART-formulated. Oh, how I always hated this at school. But the formula is there for a reason. So hop, into those SMART goals. Break your goals into small pieces. For example, at the beginning of this year I made a vision board with all the goals I wanted to achieve. I didn't achieve these goals. Why? They are long-term goals. Too far away. This also kept me from staying motivated. After a few months I thought: I'm not going to achieve this this year, so who cares. Chop your intentions/goals into small pieces.
• Why? Why do you have this goal? Why is this important to me? A strong but especially personal goal helps you stay motivated. Sit down for an hour and write everything down. Visualize how you feel when you have achieved this goal. How fantastic does that feel?!
• Make it fun . You can make it as fun as you want. Don't like working out at the local gym? Try yoga or dancing. You may have to step out of your comfort zone a bit, but this is where you'll only grow. I also like to stay in my comfort zone sometimes. It's exciting to get out of it. For example: lately I've been invited to events more and more often for work. I find this incredibly exciting and prefer to stay home. I feel at ease here and I don't think I belong here. I'm not a typical beauty influencer. Other women belong there much more and others are much better at it. I'm just doing what I can, that's often how it feels. Maybe this is due to imposter syndrome . But if I want to continue doing this work and experience fantastic things, I'll have to step out of my comfort zone. So just go. In hindsight, it's often not that bad. And of course I don't suddenly feel at ease once I'm there. In fact, it feels super uncomfortable at first. But I've been there and the threshold will be lower next time. I make fantastic memories and grow enormously on a personal level. A very good tip is to reward yourself. I explained this in more detail in my previous blog. But reward yourself when you have achieved your goal. This really keeps you motivated.
• Don't be too hard on yourself . We are all people with many feelings, thoughts and HORMONES. Man, if they were a bit more stable for me sometimes, I would achieve my goals a bit easier. For example, the first week after my period I am mega motivated. High on life. The days before my period everything is gone to me and those goals don't interest me anymore. Find the balance, have that bar of chocolate and swap the gym for a walk with a funny podcast. It's all about picking yourself up again afterwards. That is very difficult, but if you can break that pattern you are so close to your goal!
• Buddy . Find a buddy! And that comes from someone who prefers to do everything alone haha. But it's really true: a buddy helps. You don't quickly cancel, you motivate each other and you achieve your goals together. That's a really nice feeling. I once had a sports buddy. I've never been SO in shape. We were very evenly matched and therefore worked towards the same goals. That was so nice!
• Change your environment. It is very difficult to keep something up if you have little support. Do you want to live healthier but your partner eats a bag of chips every night? Throw him/her out. No, just kidding. But above all, have the conversation that this is very important to you, that you want to achieve your goal and that you need support. Make it a party and start living healthier together. Surround yourself with people who support you.
• Focus on habits, not just results . Make your goal part of your daily routine. Instead of "I want to lose 10 pounds," focus on "I'm going to eat a healthy breakfast every day."
• Keep learning. Reflect regularly. I know this can be difficult and confronting. But that's how you learn. You see your patterns and also recognize more quickly when you start to 'fall' out of routine. What is going really well and what could be better?

And remember: it is not a competition. Do you recognize yourself in this blog? I am very curious about your goals. Let me know in the comments.

See you soon!