The New Year is just around the corner, which means New Year’s Resolutions are also coming up! But let’s face it, no matter how determined we are to see our resolutions through, we’ll all inevitably fail within a few weeks. But that doesn’t mean we can’t reflect on 2018 and learn some lessons from our mistakes (which hopefully will last longer than our resolutions) that we can all take into the New Year!
Lesson 1: Stop trying to impress others
Now, I know you have probably heard this one many times by now, but I just had to include it because no matter how many times it’s said, people will still go out of their way to try and impress other people. When I say “stop trying to impress others”, I don’t mean stop being a good person, or stop being a friend. I mean stop pretending to be someone you are not so others will like you. Stop doing things you don’t want to do just because others are doing it. It’s fine to do things that happen to impress others, but don’t do things you don’t want to because you feel the need to impress someone else. If you are ever in a situation where you feel pressured to do something you don’t want to do, chances are whatever relationship you’re trying to establish won’t be a very good one. So just be yourself, and if anyone dislikes you for it, let them, because I promise it is better than you disliking yourself for doing something you didn’t want to.
Lesson 2: Care less
It’s hard to go into specifics for this one because we are all different people with different problems. But in general this lesson is still a very important one that we should all try to work on. So what do I mean by “care less”? I mean, care only about what you need to care about. There are so many “problems” in our lives that don’t even need to be problems, yet we still treat them like they are. We devote so much time and effort to fix something so trivial that it doesn’t even require fixing. Again, it’s hard to find specific examples because we are all different people, but think about the times you got frustrated or offended and try to determine if it was actually worth your time to fixate on it. Some things are only problems if you decide to let them be problems so stop allowing them to be. Just remember that you only have 24 hours in a day, and it’s not worth letting something that happened over the course of a minute ruin it.
Lesson 3: All People Are Different
This is perhaps the most important lesson on this list. The reason I say it is so important is because if you keep this lesson in mind when communicating with other people, you will have a much better time talking to them. Every person is a product of their experiences, the people they have met, and the challenges they have overcome. This all contributes to who they are. This concept should be obvious, but the truth is that it is something that is always forgotten. A lot of the time, when we talk to other people, we are speaking from our experiences, and we expect our listeners to understand where we are coming from. However, a lot of the time they do not, or maybe they disagree, because they have not had the same experiences as us. This disagreement can be frustrating, and this frustration can lead to arguments or even fights. So the next time you feel like disagreeing with someone, think that you are speaking from your perspective, and they are speaking from theirs. Sometimes disagreements will happen and it’s not wrong to do so, but if you keep this in mind, you should be able to reduce the amount of arguments you have.
These lessons may seem obvious when they are being read, but in practice, they may be difficult to uphold. These three lessons are the three main lessons that I have been working on this past year, and I do think I see some positive changes in my life. You may already follow these three lessons and that is great! I encourage you you keep finding ways to improve yourself and make yourself better. If you don’t have these lessons in mind, you should try to think about them because I promise it will be in your best interest to do so. No matter who you are, these three lessons are some great ones to take into the New Year.