New Year is not only a merry holiday that unites family and friends at one table. It’s also a great excuse to re-evaluate your priorities, finish important things, and start changing your life for the better. True, you will have to work hard to make tangible progress and start the year with a clean slate. We have collected a few important things that you should have time to do before the holidays.
Things to do before the New Year
1. Make plans for the new year
Not no plans for New Year’s Eve and the holiday weekend, but the forecast for the next year. It is important to understand which direction you need to move to achieve what goals to strive for.
If you even roughly know what you want, it will be much easier to translate your ideas into reality. So sit down and think about what you will focus on in the new year: you will acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, seek a promotion at work, prepare to start your own business, play sports, etc.
2. Get rid of debt
Debt obligations, whether it be loans from family and friends or a loan from the bank, significantly reduce the quality of your life and make you experience unnecessary stress. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to get rid of at least some part of your debts, be sure to do it before the New Year holidays.
It will become much easier for you, and you will finally be able to shift your focus to other, no less important problems.
3. Carry out a general cleaning
Get rid of all things, thoughts, and people that hinder you, do not bring anything good into your life, and only drag you to the bottom. Clean up your apartment: throw out everything old and broken, sell what you don’t use, organize the space so that you feel comfortable at home.
Think about what exactly prevents you from achieving your goals: maybe you are overly criticizing yourself, afraid of someone else’s opinion, you think that you are not good enough at what you are doing. Be sure to work through these thoughts and understand where they come from.
Pay attention to your environment: are their people in it who prevent you from growing and developing, destroying your faith in yourself, trying to manipulate you. If so, decide for yourself whether you need to keep in touch with them.
4. Summarize the results of the year
Answer the question honestly: what did you manage to do over the past year. Maybe you have mastered what you do, started building a career, improved physical fitness, solved health problems.
Whatever it is – if you have moved forward even a little – this is already an achievement. And if there was no progress, then this is a great reason to invest more time and effort in your personal and professional development in the new year.
5. Decide on at least one important change
You can put off changes until later and think that you will begin to translate them into reality in the new year. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. The beginning is the most difficult part of the process, so you need to overcome yourself and stop looking for excuses for your inaction.
Try to make up your mind on at least one important change before the holidays. This will greatly increase your chances of success and gain confidence in yourself.
6. Check your health
It is unnecessary to make a full check-up, visit all doctors, and get tested, but the New Year is a great reason to solve your health problems. If you are worried about something for a long time, find the time and energy to visit a specialist.
You can’t put off taking care of yourself all the time: have time to sort it out before the holiday weekend, and you will remain grateful to yourself in the new year.
7. Plan your holiday weekend
You can and should use every opportunity to relax. By depriving yourself of quality rest, you reduce your efficiency, expose yourself to unnecessary stress, and risk getting mental problems. So do yourself a favor and plan your holiday weekend ahead of time.
Decide who you need to see, what to do, where to go or go. When you are not thinking about how to fill your free time, you will likely try, out of habit, to do useful things – work, household chores, etc. But use the holidays differently – give yourself a weekend.
8. Apologize to those you have mistreated
It is difficult to live with guilt: if you did or said something bad to another person, let the New Year holidays be another reason to ask him for forgiveness. Sometimes a few simple words are enough to return friendship or love, to make it clear to someone you care.
If you want to apologize to someone, do so no matter how much time has passed since your argument. It’s never too late to do the right thing.
9. Forgive those you hold a grudge against
As long as you hold a grudge or are angry with a person, you only make things worse for yourself. The one who did something bad to you still enjoys life without even thinking about you. So why do you need to waste time and nerves on vain experiences?
Try to let go of all the grievances, and it will become much easier for you. At the very least, you will stop dwelling on negative emotions and allow yourself to move on.
10. Make a promise to yourself to change for the better
New Year is the time to promise yourself a few important things. For example, start to deal with your fears, stop depending on other people’s opinions, increase your self-esteem, pump your knowledge and skills in certain areas.
It will be great if you make a list of your pre-New year’s promises, and you will periodically glance at it so as not to forget anything for sure.
