New Year, More Sustainability. It will probably become my motto for commencing 2022 and starting into 2023. New Year resolutions help to wrap up the old year and are an opportunity to reimagine what the New Year shall hold for you. Although there is the stigma of years of unfulfilled resolutions, there is some room left for your imagination – a future worth looking forward to with sustainable New Year’s resolutions.

One of the main problems with general New Year’s resolutions is that most goals are unattainable, not well prepared or do not reflect what is best for us. Nonetheless, wishing for a better next year is valid, but we need a different strategy to really make the best out of the new year.

Well, what does this other strategy look like? Before embarking on your journey into the new year, reflect on the year 2022 you will leave behind. Reflection of what was is an invaluable strategy to lay down the foundation to start the New Year with a bang – 2023 looking forward to.

Reflection is about prioritising what is important to you. Uniquely, you decide about the course of your New Year and your decisions matter. You can decide to orient your life towards a goal like living sustainably – but the first and foremost change starts with you and your mindset.

Reflect on the past  – Was 2022 Yay or Nay?

Your sustainable New Year resolutions start with reflecting on 2022. You can also add 2021 into the equation though it might not be the best year to reflect upon as it was out of the ordinary. 

First of all, do not be harsh on yourself. This end-of-year reflection is not about pointing out your ‘flaws’ and ‘failures’. 

This exercise shall help you identify the areas that need attention and gain clarity on which steps you can take to make 2023 worth looking forward to.

Let us start with your 2022 resolutions.

• What were your resolutions for 2022?
• What inspired you to choose your resolution(s)?
• Could you accomplish your resolutions?
• If yes, what helped you to stick to your resolution(s)?
  • What helped you in achieving your resolution(s)?
  • Is there anything you would have done differently?
  • Please, share your awesomeness with us in the comments 😉
• If no…
  • How long have you been able to keep up with your resolution(s)?
  • What happened that you did not continue pursuing your resolution(s)?
  • What did you need to keep pursuing your resolution(s)?

Gaining clarity on what went well and what did not go so well is important to understand yourself. While reflecting on your past, you get a better understanding of your core values, passions and strengths. Sometimes it is not about the inability to stick to resolutions. In most cases, we follow strategies that do not work well for us.

Starting a year with too ambitious resolutions is prone to failure. Therefore, you need to put some effort into reflecting on what worked well and what did not work well for you in 2022. Anticipation can be the greatest joy. Hence, you can derive action steps you can look forward to putting into practice.

What was yay in 2022? Lay the foundation for your sustainable New Year’s resolutions

Too often, we get caught up in what is not going well. For a positive mindset, let us focus on what did go well for you in your 2022 journey. Remembering the good memories from 2022 will swing you in the right mood to imagine how to create more good memories in 2023. 

Here are some questions to reflect positively on 2022:

• What is my best moment?
• What did I accomplish? Which accomplishment was I most proud of?
• What did I do that was the most fun?
• What have I learned from 2022?
• What miracle would I like to happen this year?
• How did I take care of myself this year?

For a moment, appreciate where you are now. The last few years might have been tough for you. In fact, we underestimate the impact of the past because our lives are so busy or overwhelming.

Therefore, appreciate where you are right now. Although you might think you are not the best version of yourself, recognise that you are continuously growing. There is no perfect endstate. You have personally grown a lot in the last few years. You are not the same person you were a few months ago. Remember, you will not be the same person in 2023. 

Focus on what matters to you. What brings you joy? What brings you a tingly feeling of excitement? What is so simple that you cannot live without? What do you need to do to make 2023 worth looking forward to?

Related:

7 Powerful Ways To Focus On What Is In Your Control

How does sustainability fit into this?

I do not want to be the party pooper, but what we just went through is the sustainable part. It might sound airy-fairy: You are part of a sustainable system, but possibly on a junction that eventually leads to sustainability. Sustainability starts with you – a human with needs, desires, hopes, dreams and the will to create a better future. 

We cannot be sustainable if we are not in the right headspace to do so. Sustainability is now about answering the question: Who are we as human beings? What needs to change to feel human again?

A sustainable world needs people like you and me who figured out what we want to contribute to make our world a better place. People who have figured out their role to create a future worth looking forward to.

Many social systems push us into roles we do not identify with and take away the possibility to find out what we truly have to do to make our world more sustainable. We are pushed into patterns of consumerism, hustling, unhealthy behaviours, anti-social behaviours and so on while exploiting and deteriorating our well-being and destroying the only livelihood that really matters: our Earth.

It is not a dream life if it is a nightmare to maintain it. 

Hence, it is not worth living at the cost of the planet. Surely, you and I wish there was an easy way out. The best we can do – at the moment – is to unlearn unsustainable lifestyle patterns. In other words, use your sustainable New Year’s resolutions to become the change you want to see in the world.

Ditch those End-Of-Year worksheets, get out your Vision Board

Yes! Not everything needs to become a workload. You already have enough work. Let us embrace 2023 with a banger!

How to rename your sustainable New Year’s resolutions 2023

• Exploring the opportunities of 2023
• End-of-Year Adventure List
• Inspirational Action-Steps
• My Happy-Focus List
• The Big Sustainable Picture of 2023

And my personal favourite: 2023, a future worth looking forward to!

If you have more inspirational names for your green and sustainable New Year’s resolutions, let us know in the comments below!

Let me introduce you to this beauty: My 2023 Vision Board Planner. The link will bring you to my ReSustainability Etsy shop.

Making 2023 worth looking forward to

Let us talk about the future! 

For your sustainable New Year’s resolutions, I prepared another set of questions on what you can focus on to start creating 2023 worth looking forward to:

• What would you try if you knew you could not fail?
• What goal(s) do you want to accomplish?
• What holds you back from accomplishing your goal(s)?
• What could you do differently?
• What new skills could you learn to achieve your goal(s)?
• What do you want the new year to hold for you?
• What would you like to stop doing next year?

My last question: How does it make you feel answering those questions?

Your feelings indicate if you are on a good pathway or not. If you feel overwhelmed, remember that goals are simply goals. Therefore, avoid putting another workload into your schedule and reimagine your resolution(s).

Your resolution(s) is a step forward. It can be tiny little steps, big jumps or something in between. You do you!

Use your reflections to create a plan worth putting into practice. Many New Year’s resolution advice points out to learn from your mistakes. Unfortunately, it draws the focus on what did not go so well. How about you focus on what went well and start developing from there? 

Mistakes are a part of life, but we decide how much meaning we put into them. Instead, look at what went well in 2022. Remember the moments you felt at peace. When you felt like you could conquer the world. Those feelings make us move mountains. They can be rare, but sometimes they are all we need to make the decisions that are better in any regard.

Life is not about lessons, it is about the experience you gain along your journey

Slow and steady wins the race. The good thing is: There are many races you can participate in. Thus, taking matters slowly will not make you run out of time, it will increase the percentage of a valuable lifetime. That is something to look forward to, right? Celebrate your tiny or big accomplishments – alone or with your loved ones. 

In fact, you are your worst critics. Probably, you would never be as harsh with your advice to others as you are towards yourselves. You deserve the same love you give others. 

You might feel like something is missing, and it indeed is. Now that you laid the mental foundation, you need some inspiration for actionable steps which can make 2023 a future worth looking forward to.

You reimagine your pathway, your decisions matter. It is about prioritising what is important to you. Even better, set up some eco-friendly resolutions as they benefit you and the planet.

Related:

ABC Of Sustainability: The Vital Role Of Words To Change The World

One step you can take right now which is as easy as falling off a log is to subscribe to the Reimagine Sustainability Newsletter. You will receive weekly inspirations on how to live more sustainably, become the impact you want to see in the world AND create a future worth looking forward to:

Shall we move to the action section of new year sustainability? 1… 2… 3… Go! –> Related Article: Coming Soon (more specifically on the 19th of December) 😉