I won’t overwhelm myself with too many unreachable new years’ resolutions this year, but I have a few goals. I rather like to set up achievable goals than overwhelming new year resolutions. Here is my list of goals for 2022.

1. Continue to study. I will continue to study the behavioral sciences and be more focused on school this year. Since I taking two different courses in two different degrees at the same time (I will have a degree in both social work and behavioral science by the end of my studies!), I would like to finish one of them in 2022. The one in social work would be nice to finish, so I can only focus on psychology for the next 3 years to come.
2. In my spare time, I will focus on language learning instead of just scrolling youtube or any other social media. When I feel bored I can, for example, expand my English vocabulary, or practice writing Hiragana, or learn new verbs in Portuguese. Of course, I can take breaks sometimes and scroll through the feed, but I won’t let it take over my days.
3. Watch more series and films on Lingopie instead of Netflix. So I practice my Portuguese skills by streaming instead of just dead watching something. That feels more productive. But same as with social media, I can let myself be unproductive some days too. So I will keep Netflix for those days.
4. Embrace slow living and don’t take my health for granted. Yes, as it sounds like, I would rather stay healthy and live slow than be over-productive and burned out.
5. And last but not least, do more what’s makes me happy without having any second thoughts about it! What I mean is, it’s okay to just have a hobby and not earn any money on it. It’s okay to have a hobby you can’t profit off. I would like to create more free stuff to put up online, such as music or digital art as wallpapers and so on. I’m no longer feel a need to earn money from my creative fields. Even tho I’m thinking about opening a little shop online just as a fun thing for those who are interested. Some people have asked me about it, so why not just for fun? I can have both the free stuff and paid stuff on there.

Those are my new year resolutions or goals for the next year. I think they meet the criteria I have set for my goals: achievable, healthy, and enjoyable.

Goals should be challenging, but not overwhelming. A healthy goal is good and can be challenging at the same time. But never ever take your health – mental OR physical – for granted!

/Tricia Joy.