Much love, Shaudeh Farjami

I’ll give it to you straight. If you want the life that not everyone can achieve, you have to move in ways that not everyone can move. 2024, graduation year and more. The motivation is there in all its tenacity.

Here’s my hot take: I am anti-new years resolutions. Specific, individual goals are stronger than big, broad resolutions. When we make resolutions, we’re throwing habits and practices at a wall and seeing if one will stick. This is why resolutions fail, they don’t specify planned actions.

My new year’s resolution was always about the same every year. Something along the lines of: “To be skinny.” Sound familiar? In the last few years, I’ve finally realized that I don’t need to be skinny. What I really need is to practice self-love, exert positive affirmations, and find ways to move my body that makes me feel good. With a resolution so broad, it is easy to get lured into a downward spiral of doing unhealthy practices to meet the resolution— in my case, to be skinny. Little did I know, what I really wanted was to be happy. Oddly enough, we think that being skinny will make us happy. This empty resolution is a pipeline to an on going cycle of hurting yourself until you give up, and try again next January.

Less than 10% of Americans who establish resolutions complete them. 45% of Americans quit before the end of January. Use this statistic to realize that a big resolution will not likely make lasting change and it is not maintainable. If you’ve ever felt discouraged, you’re clearly not alone.

Balance is crucial. When it comes to revamping your lifestyle and implementing wellness, you can take things too far very easily. There is a fine line between wellness and overdoing it completely to the point where the habits are unhealthy.

If you want to reach your aspirations in 2024, even if January was not the strongest start, make goals and make a plan. It takes 21 days to make a habit. Start small; do not set yourself up too big. The fact of the matter is that you cannot be a whole new person every single new year. It is already hard enough to change your lifestyle and you cannot do it all at one. Here’s the secret: make one goal your priority and identify the habits that will get you there. If you start small, the changes will be sustainable.

This tactic will actually work. You can really be the girl of your dreams and change your lifestyle. I know how hard you were hoping for a short cut from ChatGPT and a meal prep recipe that will solve all your problems.

The only way to create sustainable change in your life is working slow and steady. The only way you can make your dream life, relationship, school, is this. Knock out a couple things each year and add more every January when you know you are ready. It is frustrating that there is no secret to changing your whole lifestyle but changing your life overtime slow and steady is so much better than starting from 0, or even below 0, every year. This is how you are going to make 2024 the year you actually follow through with the goal 365 days of the year.

I’ll give an example. Let’s say your big goal is to workout more. Have you found the work? How many times a week will you go? How will you make sure you follow through? No we’re talking. Start workout twice a weeks and make it a habit. Then bump it up to as many as you feel comfortable with. The process goes as follows: come up with a reasonable goal and come up with four small things you can do to make it easier.

The motivation is there, we all have goals and aspirations for 2024. I have the power to make it happen, but I’m just too scared to push outside of my comfort zone. If you’re reading this and have big goals for 2024, do not let fear hold you back.

Much love,

Shaudeh Farjami