I am not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions. You make yourself one promise and try to stick to it. Often, people feel pressured to make big, life-changing resolutions. Other times, people make these promises and by March, have let them go. I want to achieve things in 2025, I want to make bold claims and try and stick to them. On the 1st of January I saw a post about not doing a New Year’s Resolution, but participating in 2025 Bingo. I thought this was a great idea, and I am now on board, but with a twist.
But first, I want to talk about New Year’s Resolutions, why they have good intentions but can fail you, and how you can make an agreement with yourself to achieve some cool stuff during the year.
A New Year’s Resolution
This is a promise, or a commitment made to ourselves, something we plan to achieve in the New Year. Resolutions such as- I’m going to lose weight, save more money or make new friends, are
really common. They’re also not very specific. And it is possibly that lack of specificity that brings such problems.
Forbes conducted a poll that showed that people felt peer group pressure to make a resolution, which is also a reason why many people fail to meet them. It isn’t a goal you want, it’s one you felt you HAD to make.
We make these resolutions because it’s a new year, a time for reflecting back on what has been, and a chance to do something new and positive for ourselves for the year to come. To get a little philosophical for a moment, the whole New Year idea is a human construct. You can make resolutions and plans for yourself at any time of the year, to last for however long you want. How many 30-day plans pop up on your socials all year round?
Stepping back, it’s perfectly okay to use the idea of a New Year celebration to launch the New You. If that’s what it takes, then fantastic.
Why do resolutions fail?
One reason that our resolutions fail is we think too big. We can get caught up in the moment of celebration and think- I am going to make these sweeping changes to my life! Such big ideas need support, momentum and time to take effect.
When we’re into February and we start to see how momentous our resolution was, we get scared, don’t think we’ll make it, and quietly kick it under the bed and forget about it. It’s not to say you can’t achieve your lofty goals, but you need a plan, you need the steps in place to do so.
TIP- ask WHY you want to make the change.
These resolutions we make are about changing ourselves. Ask yourself why you want to make these changes, and attack your resolutions that way. For example- This year I am going to go on a holiday! Why? Are you bored with your life, your work, or your current situation? Did you want to find a tropical beach and sit for a week, or did you want to go on a holiday and immerse yourself in history and culture? Already this specificity makes you look at either flights to Fiji or Europe.
Why I didn’t make a resolution.
As I mentioned at the start, I have chosen to participate in a 2025 bingo, but with a difference. The social media post I was reading was saying that you should fill in small goals in the squares, and aim for 5 of them, hence BINGO. This is actually good psychology.
- Smaller goals are easier to achieve.
- Many smaller goals mean you can achieve that one, or that one, or have a go at that one.
- When you’ve finished five you can scream BINGO! This not only makes you feel like you have accomplished something (finishing a goal is positive), you get a dopamine hit!
Cut that epic resolution into bite-sized pieces, and you’ll achieve it easier, and have little wins along the way.
I didn’t like the vagueness of the offered bingo. Plus, I couldn’t think of 24 things I wanted to achieve in general. So I switched it up, and I now have a 2025 Creative Life bingo. But wait, there’s more. I got my wife involved too. This way we have a little bit of casual accountability for each other. I stipulated that on the first Saturday of the month, we would meet at a café and go through the previous month, and help each other decide if we’ve filled in a bingo square. If we did, then there would be a gold star. Plus, any excuse for a café breakfast or lunch.
TIP- Gold stars are awesome. When was the last time you earned a gold star?
Another thing I implemented was, that we can think of 20 items ourselves, but the last 4 had to be given to each other. Was there anything my wife wanted me to achieve creatively?
We filled in the bingo cards together, which helped focus some of the ideas. For example, one of my squares said- Frog Pong. My wife focused that into finding a landscape designer, or online tips, to ask real questions from an expert, rather than a flimsy, hand-wavy idea of just ‘Frog Pond’.
One of the squares she gave me was to attend creative events or exhibitions. There are so many in and around Melbourne, but I just don’t go. The art experiences we had last year were mostly driven by her. So now she wants me to look up and away from the page, find something artistic and creative, and attend. Cool little date idea as well.
What is ‘creative’?
Looking at my Bingo card, you might think some of the squares are full of things you wouldn’t consider creative. In 2023, while in London, I found this book- The Creative Act, by Rick Rubin. It appealed to me because the definition of creative can be so much broader than simply doing art. It appeals to me for the idea that people who don’t think they’re creative, are doing creative things but they either don’t realise it or don’t acknowledge it.
On my Bingo card, I have walking, doing at least 12 Park Strolls this year. I have installing floating shelves in my study, using libraries more, cooking with my slow cooker, complete websites, learn how to use Patreon, and yes, there are some writing goals on there too. While it might not seem all these ideas are creative, they are associated and connected.
- Park Stroll – conversations I have with others, or just walking to get the oxygen flowing in my body, helps the mind think and imaginate.
- Floating Shelves- claim the wall for my own, to have more room to display Lego builds, and to display more books.
- Use Libraries more- Change the schedule and get out of the house. Understand the resources that a library has, borrow books, workshops, and more.
- Use my slow cooker – cooking is creating. With full-time work, I have not used my slow cooker in more than a year. I want to create curries, sponge cakes and more, in the slow cooker.
- Complete Websites – this includes writing articles, and getting creative with the content.
- Patreon- I am trying to launch a Patreon for my Written Off Writing.
This is going to be a full-year adventure. I am not aiming to get 5 things done and scream BINGO! I plan to fill my Bingo card with gold stars. I plan to give monthly updates here about how I am progressing. Already I’ve journaled twice last week, went on an Op Shop Adventure and visited a library.
I made this Bingo card from a template on Canva, all free resources. If I don’t fill in all the boxes, that’s okay, life can get busy, and not everything can get done. But it is giving me a purpose, something to aim for and do. It is giving me permission to do stuff. I have this huge hang-up about reading, in that it is not productive. Now I have given myself permission to read because it is on my Bingo card. (Don’t give me the arguments about how good reading is for you, I know…)
I highly recommend this approach to resolutions. It is also a great way to motivate accountability groups. You can discover what your friends want you to do, or think you should achieve, and you can give yourself gold stars. Totally want gold stars.
I will check in once a month on this.