In my head, there is a difference between goals and resolutions. For me, goals are something measurable with a due date - graduating, finiding a new job, losing a certain number of pounds, making x amount of money, saving x amount of money etc. Resolutions are something that is hard to measure and it's more about lifestyle or feeling - being more patient, learning something (for example a language or instrument which you can always practice more, develop and grow as a skill), have more self-confidence...
And there is focus of the month! I've seen people do 30 days challenges on YouTube where they would pick something and do it every single day for a month. For me, that was too much comitment and pressure so I turned things around a little bit, to adjust it to me and my needs. The idea is to also pick one thing to focus on every month, but there is no pressure to do it every day. It's more about figuring out if that thing is beneficial for you, because what suits one person might not suit you even though you like the idea of it. So bringing only one thing to the spotlight for a month is enough of a trial to see if it works for you or not, if it benefits your life or you're better without it.
My focus of the month for January was reading. I already mentioned that I've only read 7 books last year and I wanted to fix that this year so that was my first challenge. I also knew that during winter/holidays it will be a lot easier for me to dedicate time to reading and until today I finished 5 books already. For February my focus of the month is (yet another) Social Media detox so I deleted Instagram and Facebook apps and logged out from them on my laptop. The point of this one is to take a break from consuming too much of everything that is posted on Social Media and even if at some point during February I get back to it, my aim is to limit my screen time and just see how it benefits my life and how it could be beneficial if I turn this into a consistent habit. On top of that, I want to continue reading as much as I can.
I didn't plan all of these challenges in advance for the entire 12 months. I'll just go with the flow, month after month. I do have some ideas like picking a specific language to learn, doing stretches, meditation, journaling... Maybe I'll even repeat some if I feel like its needed. What I like the most about this "system" is the chill, relaxed vibe that it gives me, without pressure of perfectionism, messing things up , feeling like I've failed. So if you deal with any of these issues, maybe you can try it out for yourself and see how it goes. Thing is you can totally adjust it to your needs and lifestyle. You can do it for one month, two months. half of the year, a full year... However you want!
I also want to mention that I like to keep track of these challenges in my bullet journal where I make a little calendar and mark every day I completed the focus of that month. I also write down any notes or observations I have. Now I can see that I've been reading 18 days out of 31 in January and I've spent 0 minutes on Social Media first 3 days of February.
