Hey dear readers! Although a little late, wish you all a very Happy New Year! Hope that you are looking forward to better times and ready to crush (or abandon, whatever suits you) your New Year resolutions. I have surprisingly given myself some long-pending goals this year and would be thrilled to see them realised, so wish me luck. Even as December starts we start reminiscing about the year gone by, don’t we? Exciting and mundane, planned and unexpected, humbling and overwhelming, there’s much to consider and be grateful for every year.

From getting published in an anthology to taking a Thailand trip with family, and great food adventures to an amazing time with friends, this year gave me much reason to rejoice. After a healthwise traumatic 2023 I signed up for several fitness challenges (100 days of Steps, 10 km, 1000 km, and more) this year and am super happy to share that I completed them all with gusto and won some medals too. Content creation was good but could be better planned and streamlined. This is one of the few things in the year gone by that will be worked on in the new year.

Truth be told, am not one to follow schedules religiously and tend to lose focus. Being in my forties also means grappling with hormonal issues, occasional mood swings, empty nest syndrome, remorse over lost opportunities, loneliness, and whatnot. Added to that a mother of two (16 and 10 years old) has a whole new set of responsibilities every time. How do I motivate myself to stay on track again in the new year? I tried a simple trick in the year gone by and surprisingly it worked for me.

Let me share it with you. The one thing that we tend to set our eyes upon multiple times a day is our phone wallpaper, right? I chose a favourite picture of me, added a line to it, “Dear me, I’ll make you proud in 2024. I promise.” and set it as my lock wallpaper. Every time I saw my phone (which was a lot!) I was reminded of the thought behind it and felt renewed confidence in me. Sounds silly maybe, but it’s practical. If Sheldon Cooper can find solace in his younger self’s words when he needed inspiration, why can’t we?

No prizes for guessing, my wallpaper for this new year is ready and I’m happy to give you all a peek. I went slightly overboard and packed in a lot but women are awesome multitaskers and never leave anything unfinished. It’s pretty self-explanatory and has already found its rightful place. Angel loved it and said that I photograph well and get around too. Awww, right? 🙂

A change in the calendar year doesn’t necessarily mean planning our life around it. Forced enthusiasm often brings up a crop of new athletes, gym-goers, meditators, and journalers who disappear within a week. Why not make every day our playground to fall and get up, learn and unlearn, and own up to everything that makes us unique? If the year gone by was good, the coming year could be even better!

Humbly request you all to hold me to task for straying or backing out from my plans. After all, you, my dear readers, are the ones I look up to for assurance, support, encouragement, and feedback. Have you made any new year plans? How are you going about achieving them? Do tell me.

This post was created for the Blogaberry Creative (Monthly) Challenge.

“This post is a part of ‘Celebrate and Reflect Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under #EveryConversationMatters”

© This site A Vibrant Palette is the property of Varsha Bagadia. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Varsha Bagadia and A Vibrant Palette with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.