It’s that time of year again. Time to think about the year ahead and setting new goals and resolutions for a better you, whatever that looks like for you. Below I have compiled a list of the most common New Year’s Resolutions and tips on how to achieve them. Happy New Year from myself and 1st Choice Lodging.Lose weight/Get healthy – Buying a new gym membership, and then not using it. Instead make smaller lifestyle changes that build habits. There are a few apps that help with this – Noom, My Fitness Pal, Fabulous – all work on the idea of logging, and building habits to sustain healthful changes. For Noom go to https://web.noom.com/weight-loss/ to sign up!

Get organized – If you read our Holiday blog, you would’ve decluttered and purged prior to the holidays. If you haven’t done this, do this now. Decluttering and purging things that you haven’t used in the past year or things you don’t even know what they are – get rid of it. This is a great start to this resolution.

Save more money – There are plenty of programs and apps that can help with this. Pay off debt first. This may seem counter-intuitive, but this will help you save in the long run. By paying off debts you raise your credit score. Raising your credit score means you are more likely to get lower interest rates on home and car loans, if you are looking at making big changes in 2022. Apps like Stash, Chime, and even some banking account apps now have investment opportunities to help save money and even build your money.

Read more – If you are anything like I am, I love a good book. One way to get more books read.. audiobooks! Listening to an audiobook on your commute to work is one way to get more reading in. You can also get the Overdrive app and use your library card to “rent” audiobooks and ebooks directly onto your tablet or phone making it easy to read “on the go”

Live life to the fullest – This means different things to different people. But here are some of my top tips! Live every day in gratitude, being more grateful for what you do have, gives you less time to complain. Live everyday in the moment. Stop living in the past, you can’t change it. Stop living in the future, it isn’t here yet. Live in the here and now. Be true to who you are, and learn how to say no and set boundaries. Whether it’s saying no to that 3rd overtime shift this week or it’s saying no to that outing that you really don’t want to show up at, learning to say no to things is so liberating. Remind yourself daily, that other people’s opinions of you, are none of your business. What other people think doesn’t matter. What makes you happy and what you want is the only thing you should think about.

Learn a new hobby or skill – take a look at your local career centre! There are plenty of classes for new skills and job sets. Find what interests you, whether you really love music or art or travel or the outdoors, really sit down and think about what interests you and run with it. Sing or dance like no one is watching or listening. Paint a picture, there are paint by numbers available for adults now and they are beautiful! Learn how to draw, look up videos on YouTube. Pick somewhere close (within a few hour drive) and plan a trip. Love the outdoors, get a new pair of hiking boots and break them in! Hocking Hills is truly inspiring for all of these new hobbies!

Travel more – Just because you want to travel more, doesn’t mean you have to be extravagant. Pick somewhere in your state and go to it. Take a day trip. Try new foods. Visit your local state and national parks. You will feel like you are entering a whole new world.