#33 Postanowienia Noworoczne

I don't think life just happens to us and so you have to know what you want in order to get it. You can make changes in your life at any time, but some of us like to wait until a new calendar year or a new birthday to focus on self-improvement. When we decide to do or not to do something starting with the new year, we call that making a new year's resolution. Common New Year's resolutions are eating healthier, exercising, saving money and getting better with personal finances, learning something new or quitting old bad habits.

Or I told myself I would... I told myself I would start going to bed earlier and get at least 8 hours of sleep. There's always a lot of talk about goals and habits around the start of a new year. A goal is usually one desired thing, something specific you're trying to achieve. A habit is a series of repeated actions, so things you need to do over and over to get you to achieve that goal. For example, if your goal is to play the piano, then you will have to build the habit of practicing to play every day for 30 minutes.

If your goal is to learn a new language, then you need to get into the habit of doing those lessons every day. What would help you to build a strong habit is consistency. Being consistent means doing something regularly with a predictable pattern. This could mean daily or weekly. Sometimes you have to make small, consistent changes to start seeing big results. Small, consistent changes to your daily diet will result in a healthier you. Maybe it's weight loss, but maybe it's memory improvement, or maybe it's pain in your joints that you're trying to fix.

Other phrases in everyday spoken English related to starting new habits are get back into a routine, meaning do what you used to do regularly. I used to go out for a walk every day after lunch, but I haven't done that lately. I would like to get back into my walking routine. Start fresh, meaning start new. I'm going to leave my bad habits in the past and start fresh in the new year. Cut back on means to stop or do less of something. My doctor told me to cut back on sugar. Because if I don't, I'm going to get diabetes.

We can also cut back on spending money. Stick to it. Keep doing something consistently. My workout trainer said I have to stick to my new workout routine if I want to see results. Fall off track means to drift away from a goal. I was doing so well with practicing my Spanish, but then I got busy doing other things and fell off track. If you stopped doing something, your goal is to get back on track. You know what's interesting? Talking about failure doesn't have to be a negative thing.

I what if you're not doing anything new in the new year? My company usually closes for business for the last two weeks of December, so everyone has a chance to take a break and do something fun. This means that the conversations we have when we get back into the office are mostly focused on what everyone did during the break.

Conversations often start with, how was your break? Then I usually follow that up with, did you go away? Or, how's the family? How are the kids? Did you do anything fun for New Year's? So when I was talking to my work friend Megan, I said something like, New Year, new you? And she said, absolutely not. Same old me. I like me the way I am. Do you want to be a different person? And I said, no, I don't want to be a different person. I just want to be a better version of myself.

That was a good reminder for me that your goals don't have to be life-changing. Small goals are great. So then Megan showed me a picture of what she wore for New Year's Eve and we talked about how she spent the night. And since we're on the topic of New Year's Eve, let's take a minute to quickly go over what people do on the last night of the year. For the record, I gave up on going out on New Year's years ago. I'm pretty sure my family was in bed by 6pm on the 31st. Mówię, że byliśmy trochę szaleni, bo po prostu wróciliśmy z wycieczki.

Ale normalnie idziemy do świątyni bardzo wcześnie. Więc to nie było tak inaczej od naszego zwykłego planu. So the main thing we all do in the last moments of the year is the countdown, where we count backwards from 60 or 30 or 10 seconds to midnight. 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year! New York is known for the ball drop in Times Square, and that always gets broadcasted all over the world. It's fun to watch different parts of the world celebrate while you're waiting for the time to pass in your region.

But when it comes to New York, I have never and I have no plans of ever ringing in the new year in Times Square. Spędzić przynajmniej 6 godzin na zewnątrz w zimie, bez dostępu do łóżka, ponieważ nie możesz wyjechać z twojego miejsca lub go stracisz, pochłonięty przez kawałek przyjaciół, nie jest moim zdaniem świetnym doświadczeniem. I nie wiem jednej osoby, która to zrobiła. Nie jedna. To nie jest przyjemny scenariusz dla większości ludzi w Nowym Jorku. Gdziekolwiek jesteś, możesz zobaczyć konfety i baluny, które spadają na ciebie.

Amerykanie nie robią kwiatów na świątę Nowego Dnia, ponieważ kwiaty są bardziej coś takiego jak 4 lipca, dzień niezależności. Little horns and whistles or any kind of noisemakers are common party supplies, just like little hats and glasses with the new year on them. At midnight you may kiss someone special or toast your friends with a glass of champagne. If you drink, hopefully you don't end up with too much of a hangover the next day. Feeling sick gets a lot more annoying as you get older because no one has time for that anymore.

New Year's Day is meant for R&R or rest and relaxation. And with that I'm going to conclude this episode. Whether you're hoping to travel more, learn a new skill or read more books, I hope you're successful at it. People say that writing things down and making vision boards helps. I guess they call it manifesting. Whatever you call it, if you are dedicated and put the effort into something for long enough, I'm sure you'll see the results you want. If you're enjoying the podcast, leave me a comment, a review or a rating wherever you stream your podcast.