What kinds of New Year’s resolutions have you made for 2020?

​Lose weight?
Eat healthier?
Drink more water?
Be more present and focused?

Quite frankly, I get tired of making the same resolutions each year, only to either drop them completely or sporadically pick them up again throughout the year.

I’m not saying don’t make resolutions – it’s actually good to have a plan, and intentions for the new year. It increases your positivity and your productivity.

Here are a few ideas of things you can do that will give you a boost of accomplishment going into the new year.

1. Review your Amazon purchases

I try to do this at the beginning of every year. Log into your Amazon account and leave a meaningful review for items that you purchased the previous year. In this case it would be anything purchased in 2019. You can skip the dish towels or anything small that you don’t necessarily want to leave a review for, but those large or expensive items that you appreciated reading reviews for would be great. We always use reviews to help make our decision, so it’s time to pay it forward. I also love waiting because some things stop working after a few uses or months, but most of the time we already left the review and not too many people go back in and update it. Waiting to do the review gives you enough time to say whether or not the purchase was worth it.

2. Write a letter to yourself

There’s actually a website for this (https://www.futureme.org/) that allows you to write an email and send it to yourself for sometime in the future. You can do that, or you can handwrite a letter and put it in a place to open the following new year. This is a new tradition I’m doing with my daughter for Christmas. On Christmas Eve we write letters to ourselves that we will read the following year. It can include anything you want to say and no one has to read it (unless you want to share). What you did the previous year, anything you are looking forward to for the upcoming year, changes you’d like to make, resolutions, etc. Here’s how we do the letters.

• Write this year’s letter on Christmas Eve*
• On Christmas Day, pull last year’s letter out of the stockings and read them
• Put the new letter in the stocking to be read next year

*Alternately, you can do this on New Years Eve/New Years as well, but I decided on Christmas because I like putting them in the stockings, and I’m not always guaranteed to still have stockings up by New Years. We also write the new letters first so we’re not influenced by anything we said last year, but you can do what feels right for you.

These are fun to read 1 year later so you can compare or see if you are where you thought you would be. The first couple times you do this, it might be a little depressing if you didn’t accomplish what you thought, but knowing that you will be reading this letter in the future might help you stick to your plans.

3. Create a vision board

You might already know what this is or how to make one, but if not, check out this post I wrote: Vision Boards: Manifest Your Dream Business & Life. I break down the process of creating vision boards and what to put in them, and I created a simple checklist so you can quickly go through the process. Some people swear by vision boards and it might be a good option for you if you are visually motivated. If you make a vision board for the new year, I’d love to see it so tag me on Instagram.

4. Do the bucket list challenge

I have a free challenge for you: The 14-Day Bucket List Challenge, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. Two weeks of activities and ideas to get you doing things you don’t normally do. Some things are prompts from me and others you will come up with yourself, but it will get you into the spirit of the new year and new beginnings. You will receive daily emails and a challenge workbook.

5. Do less

Lastly, I challenge you to just do less. We are always creating lofty resolutions to do this and do that, until our new goals list is way more than we can handle. Truth be told, that’s probably why so many of us fall off the resolution wagon to begin with. So, for 2020, I urge you to do less. Now if you are a planner and a go-getter, then by all means, knock your socks off with all the things. But if you are like most Americans that get stressed out with the thought of having to plan the perfect party or make sure everyone’s Easter baskets and eggs are top notch, then just do less. It might be a bit unusual and jarring at first, especially if you have kids, but if this is something you want to instill in your life – aka simplicity – then you and everyone else will be happier in the long run.

So what are some of the things you will be doing in 2020? Leave a reply and let me know in the comments!