2023 Resolutions

Dear readers, I need to be real with you.

Last year, I confessed that I felt less ambitious than any year before, and that feeling has only grown over the course of 2022. I looked back on my resolutions I set last year and found that my big, broad goals for this year have essentially not changed. So I’ll leave them the same, there is no point in twisting myself into a pretzel trying to… have different goals? I am disappointed to not have made as much progress on them as I was hoping but it’s not bad to want the same big areas of improvement as I did a year ago.

I do have new concrete goals (remember my concrete vs. abstract days, wow I aspired to so much) that I am looking forward to working on this year but the rest of my goals are going to look very familiar.

Other things for me to work on this year:

Eat 20 different specific cuisines
- Inspired by Jaeki Cho on Righteous Eats, I’d like to take advantage of the huge variety of food available to me here in New York City and really hone in on how specific it can be. I wanted to make it 20 countries but sometimes even being able to get very specific cuisine from a specific area of a country feels like it’s worth celebrating, so I am hoping I exceed my goal of 20
Take a walk outside at least once a week
- There were a lot of weeks where I just… didn’t leave my apartment, because of a combination of depression and COVID anxiety. But walks outside almost always feel good, and I would like to try to make some of these walks more social too, either inviting someone to walk with me or using the time to phone a friend. This is a fitness goal in a small way, but it’s more about the comforts of walking, which I have been missing a lot as someone who used to take a post-dinner walk every single day growing up
Increase the number of meals/days that are meatless and incorporate more vegan meals
- I was a lot less intentional about last year and I think this is the way I’d like to live in the future but it was harder to enforce with my partner at home, who defaults to including meat in our meals and who I would like to take on more of our meal decisions, so it is important for us to instill this habit as a couple in order for me to achieve this personal goal
Spend more quality time with my brother now that we’re in the same city
- Quality being the key for 2023!
Put on something that makes me smile every day
- A more specific focus from last year’s “make myself look nice instead of sloppy” in having at least one thing every day that makes me feel good and maybe even put-together, whether it’s an article of clothing I look good in or even a perfume or makeup or skincare proudct
Reach out to friends and family more
- I would love to be the kind of person who hosts more activities but with the pandemic being what it is, I am going to keep trying to find ways to initiate touchpoints with my loved ones without having to throw a whole party or something
Better self-care habits
- One thing I started doing more this winter was applying body lotion over my whole body much more regularly, since my skin got so dry. It’s a nice way to take care of myself and taking the time to do it feels good, too. I’m also trying to be better at flossing regularly for similar reasons (this one is important for your health, it doesn’t seem so but it is a huge preventative measure). Little things like this, making sure I eat one whole and hearty serving of fruit and veg every day, just taking the time to take really good care of myself because I deserve it and I need it

My annual progress/follow-up will be less proud than last year’s, but I can still celebrate a few things:

I started inline skating again! This hobby fell off a bit because it started feeling laborious carrying my skates to where I liked to practice but especially carrying them home after I got tired, but I’d like to try to resume this year and get better, maybe even invest in skates that I can comfortably use to actually get around. (I believe mine may actually be indoor skates, given how uncomfortable I felt trying to skate down a bike path once.)
I made a 1 Second Everyday video for 2022! It felt a bit silly and sometimes obsessive documenting little 2-second videos so I could have a 1-second clip for this 365-second long video, but I really enjoyed the exercise, both for the sake of documenting and as a creative exercise in making the mundane beautiful.
By default, I spent more time with my brother in 2022 than I did in past years because we are living in the same city, but I’d like to be a little more intentional in the coming years about that time. Often, I’m not sure how to make sure he is having a good time or how to connect on a deeper level with him, but I think a lot of that was my own insecurities as a sister and as a friend holding me back. Less of that, more sibling bonding in 2023.
Maybe it’s more a cause for concern than celebration, but I think a part of me stopped caring so much last year and it made it much easier for me to just be okay with being bad at things. I left this as a resolution because I think my fear of being bad at things still prevents me from trying new things that would be good for me but it’s a good start, even if maybe it’s rooted in a potentially not-so-healthy place.
I actually got a therapist last year who I liked! But unfortunately she left the practice I was seeing her through and I have not found one I like since so I am back at square one and I am really disappointed about it.

Let’s see how the 3-week trial of 2023 goes before we check back in with the Lunar New Year, shall we? Heck, maybe this will even be the year I just return to blogging! (Not making any promises, those historically don’t do well on this blog.) I’m also looking into trying out some monthly challenges this year if you have any good ones to suggest, as I struggle with year-long resolutions but do better with rising to a monthly challenge.

Do you have any resolutions for the year? I’m always looking for accountability buddies, so if I can be one for you please don’t hesitate to let me know~

Past years: 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 part 1 & 2 | 2014 | 2013