Did you make any new year’s resolutions this year? If you’ve already given up on your plans, you’re not alone. Friday was Quitter’s Day, but all is not lost. There’s still time to rethink your goals for 2024. 

Welcome to week 48 of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. In addition to rethinking your goals for 2024, this week’s edition looks at houseplant appreciation day and decluttering kitchen drawers.  

On my mind this week: It’s never too late to rethink your goals

This past Friday was Quitter’s Day, a day set aside to encourage people who’ve given up on their goals and equip them to succeed. If you’re struggling to keep up with your new year’s resolutions, you’re not alone. Research shows that 80% of people who make new year’s resolutions have already given up on them by the middle of January.

Whenever I’m tempted to throw in the towel, I always hear Dory from Finding Nemo saying, “Just keep swimming!” But despite Dory’s wise words, swimming..or running…or writing…aimlessly without a plan probably won’t get you to your destination.

Why resolutions fail

A good starting point to get back on track is to consider why you haven’t been able to follow through on your good intentions.

Most resolutions fail because they are either too vague or too ambitious. If you’re a lifelong couch potato, a vague statement like “I will get in shape” probably won’t translate into action. At the other end of the spectrum, saying “I will run a marathon this year” is too ambitious.

Changing that vague wish into a specific and achievable action like “I will walk 10 minutes every day in January” is more likely to keep you motivated and on track.

So, if you’re already feeling like a failure, don’t give up. Pick your main theme or goal for the year, and then identify tiny habits that will move you in the right direction. For some extra motivation, check out the post I published on Wise & Shine on New Year’s Day. A Blank Page – Write Your Best Chapter in 2024 outlines five steps to help set you up for success in 2024.

And as you rethink your goals, keep in mind that you still have 50 more weeks in 2024 to make progress. All is not lost.  

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• I’ve already received some interest in the pilot Second Life Vision workshop that I’m planning for April. You can learn more about that in last week’s edition of The Sunday Spark.
• I’m so grateful I don’t have to go anywhere this weekend as we’re experiencing a major winter storm.
• Last weekend, I finished putting away the rest of the Christmas decorations. Although it’s sad that Christmas is over for another year, it’s nice to get the space back. It has renewed my motivation to declutter.

Things I learned this week

It has been a quiet week on the learning front as I’ve been busy preparing for my Second Life Vision workshop. With that in mind, I could say I’ve learned that I had forgotten how long it takes to put a 6-hour workshop together. But on a positive note, I prefer to say I’m relearning things I had forgotten from my training and development days.

Even so, here’s an interesting tidbit I picked up this week.

Houseplant Appreciation Day

Are you a fan of houseplants? If you are, you might know January 10 was Houseplant Appreciation Day. It’s a day dedicated to celebrating the beauty and benefits of houseplants. (Source: Happy Eco News)

I first wrote about the benefits of indoor plants in this post from 2022. I’ve lost a few of those plants but the ones that remain are thriving. The “desk plant” I referred to in that post has outgrown my desk and now sits in a pot on the living room floor, and my spider plant continues to produce babies.

This week’s decluttering challenge – Kitchen drawers

In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was decluttering kitchen drawers. After a slow start in week one, I’m happy to report I decluttered 36 items from my kitchen drawers. You can find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.

If you’re new to the challenge, visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.

I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.