Resolutions for 2022 🎉🤞🤔💪

[AvniD]

✨ Happy New Year everybody!✨​

With the beginning of 2022, I want to post this thread to give our community here at TCLA an opportunity to reflect on the year that went by and manifest their wishes for the year that lies ahead.

Your resolutions can range from anything, including-

• Something you want to change 🤔
• Things you'd like to introduce 🆕
• An aspect of your life you want to improve on 📈
• Things from 2021 that you want to maintain in 2022 🤝
• Things from 2021 that you want to banish in 2022 ❌😅

For me, something I want to change is showing more kindness to myself in 2022- I set unrealistic expectations at times and put way too much pressure on myself to satisfy them. One of the ways I'm hoping to change this is by practising mindfulness for a few minutes everyday to be more in touch with where I am and what I want to achieve in a day- I've been trying to do this while watering my plants and it's become a cute, calming ritual that I genuinely look forward to 🪴☘️🌳

What are your resolutions for 2022?

 

[James Carrabino]

✨ Happy New Year everybody!✨​

With the beginning of 2022, I want to post this thread to give our community here at TCLA an opportunity to reflect on the year that went by and manifest their wishes for the year that lies ahead.

Your resolutions can range from anything, including-

• Something you want to change 🤔
• Things you'd like to introduce 🆕
• An aspect of your life you want to improve on 📈
• Things from 2021 that you want to maintain in 2022 🤝
• Things from 2021 that you want to banish in 2022 ❌😅

For me, something I want to change is showing more kindness to myself in 2022- I set unrealistic expectations at times and put way too much pressure on myself to satisfy them. One of the ways I'm hoping to change this is by practising mindfulness for a few minutes everyday to be more in touch with where I am and what I want to achieve in a day- I've been trying to do this while watering my plants and it's become a cute, calming ritual that I genuinely look forward to 🪴☘️🌳

What are your resolutions for 2022?

This is such an excellent idea @AvniD!

I really want to get back into reading regularly for leisure - I got out of the routine and now find it hard to fit it in!

 

[Jessica Booker]

There is a lot of change expected with me for 2022 - a new house, in a new town (even if I know the town very well), and a change of direction with my business. I am therefore not going to set myself too many resolutions, because there are too many unknowns.

However, I have three I will be aiming for :

1) Learning to say no - I have always been pretty useless at saying no in a work context and tend to take on stuff when I am already busy, or worse take on things I don't really want to take on. Learning to say no upfront saves a whole lot of hassle and I just need to be better at it.

2) Walking away when you are not happy. Sometimes you have to let other people down for the sake of your own health - I spent too much of 2021 trying to protect other people at the cost of my own mental health, and I have learnt it is ok to be selfish on occasion.

3) Being open to failure. I have always been super cautious of doing large scale things that have an element of risk, especially around being unsuccessful. It has stopped me from launching two parts of my business I have been talking about for over two years now. Covid-19 and moving house didn't help me with my risk aversion (need to pay the bills the mortgage after all!) but my new circumstances should allow a little more freedom to take the risks and just try and make a success of something.

 

[Jaysen]

There is a lot of change expected with me for 2022 - a new house, in a new town (even if I know the town very well), and a change of direction with my business. I am therefore not going to set myself too many resolutions, because there are too many unknowns.

However, I have three I will be aiming for :

1) Learning to say no - I have always been pretty useless at saying no in a work context and tend to take on stuff when I am already busy, or worse take on things I don't really want to take on. Learning to say no upfront saves a whole lot of hassle and I just need to be better at it.

2) Walking away when you are not happy. Sometimes you have to let other people down for the sake of your own health - I spent too much of 2021 trying to protect other people at the cost of my own mental health, and I have learnt it is ok to be selfish on occasion.

3) Being open to failure. I have always been super cautious of doing large scale things that have an element of risk, especially around being unsuccessful. It has stopped me from launching two parts of my business I have been talking about for over two years now. Covid-19 and moving house didn't help me with my risk aversion (need to pay the bills the mortgage after all!) but my new circumstances should allow a little more freedom to take the risks and just try and make a success of something.

Love these and excited to see you start your new businesses!

 

[Iqra]

Thanks for creating this thread, @AvniD! Lovely idea.

My two resolutions for this year are:

1. To remember that my health comes first before anything else. To give a bit of context, I worked SO many hours last month, without taking any breaks, that I made myself ill. I didn't give myself rest so my body decided to do it for me. Bad idea and never doing that again.
2. To stop over-committing to things. I like to say yes to everything and wish I could take on every opportunity out there, but I need to remember that it's simply not possible to master everything all at once.

 

[AvniD]

This is such an excellent idea @AvniD!

I really want to get back into reading regularly for leisure - I got out of the routine and now find it hard to fit it in!

I've been meaning to do that for so long too! Something to get back to in 2022🤞

 

[AvniD]

There is a lot of change expected with me for 2022 - a new house, in a new town (even if I know the town very well), and a change of direction with my business. I am therefore not going to set myself too many resolutions, because there are too many unknowns.

However, I have three I will be aiming for :

1) Learning to say no - I have always been pretty useless at saying no in a work context and tend to take on stuff when I am already busy, or worse take on things I don't really want to take on. Learning to say no upfront saves a whole lot of hassle and I just need to be better at it.

2) Walking away when you are not happy. Sometimes you have to let other people down for the sake of your own health - I spent too much of 2021 trying to protect other people at the cost of my own mental health, and I have learnt it is ok to be selfish on occasion.

3) Being open to failure. I have always been super cautious of doing large scale things that have an element of risk, especially around being unsuccessful. It has stopped me from launching two parts of my business I have been talking about for over two years now. Covid-19 and moving house didn't help me with my risk aversion (need to pay the bills the mortgage after all!) but my new circumstances should allow a little more freedom to take the risks and just try and make a success of something.

@Jessica Booker being open to failure really resonated with me, especially as I've been trying to push myself to explore things out of my comfort zone in my LLM- here's to a braver, less risk-averse 2022 🥂

 

[AvniD]

Thanks for creating this thread, @AvniD! Lovely idea.

My two resolutions for this year are:

1. To remember that my health comes first before anything else. To give a bit of context, I worked SO many hours last month, without taking any breaks, that I made myself ill. I didn't give myself rest so my body decided to do it for me. Bad idea and never doing that again.
2. To stop over-committing to things. I like to say yes to everything and wish I could take on every opportunity out there, but I need to remember that it's simply not possible to master everything all at once.

I'm glad you're prioritising your health and am inspired by you too! Over-committing to things is such an issue for me too- I've found that prioritising those things that I absolutely have to complete in a day over other commitments helps me decide which ones to let go, though that does lead to the occasional FOMO too😅

Wishing you the very best in 2022 and looking forward to more of your posts on the forum 😇

 

[Jaysen]

My personal resolutions this year:

1. Meditate for 10 minutes daily. My favourite app for this is Waking Up (if anyone wants to sign up and you can't afford the subscription, just send an email and they'll give it to you for free). I'm also using an app called Streaks for accountability - a thank you to our former Commercial Editor Violet for the recommendation! Meditation has long been an important part of my life but I wanted to set this as a practical, daily resolution.
2. Go to the gym at least three times a week. Exercise makes me happier, less stressed and provides a useful space for thinking time. Every year, I find I have good periods where I am consistent and then I fall off for a period. As a result, my progress ends up back where I started. For the first time this year, I am hiring a personal trainer for accountability and to improve my form.
3. Speak up for my needs. There is a whole lot of 'unlearning' I have had to do here based on the way I was raised, but I am making a conscious effort this year to be clear and direct about what is important to me.
4. Read one page a day. Every time I read, I'm always reminded by how valuable it is to new ways of thinking. I initially started with 'one chapter', but I found that even that goal felt too high. The goal is now to just read one page and the aim is that on many days I'll be inclined to read much more than that.

There are a few things I want to explore this year on the side (like learning to code), but I am yet to make it into a resolution.

 

[Kubed]

Happy New Year! This is such a good idea and a great way to keep accountable by writing aims for the year down. I really want re-build better habits this year - exercise daily (currently do this three times per week), read for pleasure daily (whether it's a page or a chapter) and get at least 5 portions of fruit & veg in per day. I also desperately want to get back to using my annual leave for travel before my LPC starts in September...but in a more environmentally conscious way - maybe train trips in the UK & Europe.

 

[Dheepa]

I thought I'd be a little extra and report on the progress I made on the goals I posted about last year (see below) in addition to posting new ones for this year!

My biggest personal goal for this year:

• To regain some control over my anxiety and stress levels. I've always been very open about this on the forums but in short, the application process and university really took a toll on my mental health. This year I want to reconnect with some of the things that make me happiest. For me that's running twice a day, cooking lots of Japanese food and spending time with friends and family!

I am perhaps the most proud of how far I have come with this. I spent a huge amount of time and energy focused on trying to address the root of my anxiety (among other things) and I've seen some real positive effects this has had on my life since. I do not run twice a day (this was definitely extremely overambitious of me) - but I do run 5km at least 3x a week now. Also completely dropped the ball on the cooking one.

My biggest professional goal:

• To make full use of my gap year by finding a role that has nothing/very little to do with law. I have my whole life to be a lawyer and I think it will be interesting to do something different in the meantime

I think I somewhat succeeded with this one. I started out my gap year with a job in finance which while interesting and taught me a lot (hello Excel), wasn't making me very happy. I'm incredibly grateful for the roles I now have within TCLA because I work with great people, do a lot of different things, am often learning new things and most importantly I find it very fulfilling.

This year's goals include:

1. Read at least 10 books. Last year I got back into reading again and like everyone has mentioned, I really and truly forgot how much insight a good book can give you and how calming it is (in a way that watching Netflix or scrolling through social media is not).
2. Get better at managing my finances. I was fortunately able to travel quite a bit last year but was not the best at budgeting while on the go. Really want to better educate myself on personal finance this year.
3. Write down 5 things I'm grateful for everyday. I've realised I spend a huge chunk of my time thinking about my future goals and what I should be doing now to get there and not enough time thinking about what I'm happy with for now. I'm not convinced it's a very healthy mindset so I'm hoping the doing this balances that side of my personality out.
4. To actually just pass (and hopefully enjoy?) the LPC. By the time I start I'll have taken about 18 months off of studying and I'm hoping my brain will be able to cope.

 

[AvniD]

My personal resolutions this year:

1. Meditate for 10 minutes daily. My favourite app for this is Waking Up (if anyone wants to sign up and you can't afford the subscription, just send an email and they'll give it to you for free). I'm also using an app called Streaks for accountability - a thank you to our former Commercial Editor Violet for the recommendation! Meditation has long been an important part of my life but I wanted to set this as a practical, daily resolution.
2. Go to the gym at least three times a week. Exercise makes me happier, less stressed and provides a useful space for thinking time. Every year, I find I have good periods where I am consistent and then I fall off for a period. As a result, my progress ends up back where I started. For the first time this year, I am hiring a personal trainer for accountability and to improve my form.
3. Speak up for my needs. There is a whole lot of 'unlearning' I have had to do here based on the way I was raised, but I am making a conscious effort this year to be clear and direct about what is important to me.
4. Read one page a day. Every time I read, I'm always reminded by how valuable it is to new ways of thinking. I initially started with 'one chapter', but I found that even that goal felt too high. The goal is now to just read one page and the aim is that on many days I'll be inclined to read much more than that.

There are a few things I want to explore this year on the side (like learning to code), but I am yet to make it into a resolution.

Going to the gym regularly is such an important resolution that I completely relate with- my physical activity during the pandemic saw a steep decline because gyms were closed and we were all generally staying at home and this really contributed towards me feeling a sense of overwhelming gloom. Happy for you prioritising this in 2022 🤸‍♀️💪🏋️‍♀️

 

[AvniD]

Happy New Year! This is such a good idea and a great way to keep accountable by writing aims for the year down. I really want re-build better habits this year - exercise daily (currently do this three times per week), read for pleasure daily (whether it's a page or a chapter) and get at least 5 portions of fruit & veg in per day. I also desperately want to get back to using my annual leave for travel before my LPC starts in September...but in a more environmentally conscious way - maybe train trips in the UK & Europe.

@Kubed it was interesting to read that you're keen on travelling in an environmentally conscious way in 2022. What inspired you to consider this?

 

[AvniD]

I thought I'd be a little extra and report on the progress I made on the goals I posted about last year (see below) in addition to posting new ones for this year!



This year's goals include:

1. Read at least 10 books. Last year I got back into reading again and like everyone has mentioned, I really and truly forgot how much insight a good book can give you and how calming it is (in a way that watching Netflix or scrolling through social media is not).
2. Get better at managing my finances. I was fortunately able to travel quite a bit last year but was not the best at budgeting while on the go. Really want to better educate myself on personal finance this year.
3. Write down 5 things I'm grateful for everyday. I've realised I spend a huge chunk of my time thinking about my future goals and what I should be doing now to get there and not enough time thinking about what I'm happy with for now. I'm not convinced it's a very healthy mindset so I'm hoping the doing this balances that side of my personality out.
4. To actually just pass (and hopefully enjoy?) the LPC. By the time I start I'll have taken about 18 months off of studying and I'm hoping my brain will be able to cope.

@Dheepa loved reading your resolutions and how you've tracked your progress from last year 👏👏👏Out of curiosity, have you found any useful/interesting apps/tools to manage your personal finances? I've been an Excel gal for way too long and need to update my ways 😅

 

[Kubed]

@Kubed it was interesting to read that you're keen on travelling in an environmentally conscious way in 2022. What inspired you to consider this?

Thanks for your question - I'm a keen traveller and have been lucky to have had the opportunity to travel extensively to fairly far-flung places over the years. While I'm still keen to go to places further afield occasionally, I'm also aware of the impact that regular plane travel has on the environment. There are large parts of the UK and Europe that I haven't explored yet and I've recently discovered an enjoyment for train travel so this seems a sensible way forward for me!

 

[Jaysen]

Going to the gym regularly is such an important resolution that I completely relate with- my physical activity during the pandemic saw a steep decline because gyms were closed and we were all generally staying at home and this really contributed towards me feeling a sense of overwhelming gloom. Happy for you prioritising this in 2022 🤸‍♀️💪🏋️‍♀️

Thank you @AvniD. Still a work in progress as I find it is very easy to let it slip during busy periods. Time to re-read Atomic Habits I think!

 

[AvniD]

Thanks for your question - I'm a keen traveller and have been lucky to have had the opportunity to travel extensively to fairly far-flung places over the years. While I'm still keen to go to places further afield occasionally, I'm also aware of the impact that regular plane travel has on the environment. There are large parts of the UK and Europe that I haven't explored yet and I've recently discovered an enjoyment for train travel so this seems a sensible way forward for me!

I agree- train travel really can be so enjoyable! Wishing you the best for your trips in 2022 😇

 

[AvniD]

Thank you @AvniD. Still a work in progress as I find it is very easy to let it slip during busy periods. Time to re-read Atomic Habits I think!

Haha re-read for you and a first read for me!