New Year’s Resolutions for the Better

10 resolutions for a happy, healthy & sustainable 2022

As we are approaching the end of 2021, it’s time to take inventory of our lives and develop goals for the future. What do we want to accomplish in 2022? What changes will help us get there?

It sounds great every year! But let’s be honest, how many of your new year’s resolutions did you actually accomplish from last year?

Regardless, we can always try to do better, which is why we have created our personal top ten resolutions for 2022 – Maybe they can inspire you as well!

#1 – Homemade & seasonal cooking

I love to eat, but I also enjoy cooking. While it is sometimes difficult to find the time for it, I do prefer making my own meals over eating out or ordering, so I will set myself the resolution to eat homemade food at least four times a week.

But not only that, I want to also focus on seasonal ingredients – better for the climate, and better for my wallet as well! To help me do that, I use the “Grünzeit” app, but there are so many online resources as well to help guide me.

#2 – Sustainable fashionista

Going shopping, styling outfits and all that is very fun – but less enjoyable for the climate and its resources. That is why I am still striving to do better. For 2022, I aim to buy less clothes overall, and to make lists of items I actually need.

Then, I will always consult thrift shops first, to approach a more circular economy. Also, I think it would be amazing to host clothing swaps parties with friends a few times a year. We will get to exchange clothes, so we can discover new pieces but without breaking the bank or hurting the planet.

#3 – Live, love, learn

As reading is one of my favorite hobbies, I don’t really need extra motivation to do that. However, there are ways in which I can still improve a lot.

Firstly, I want to read more books focused on knowledge, rather than just fiction. So this month, I will create a reading list for myself, also including many books on sustainability.

Additionally, I really want to push myself to check out a local library, rather than buying each book at a store. Also, I will try to find the books I want on reseller sites such as ReBuy, if they aren’t at the library.

#4 – [Digital] Minimalism

Minimalism is a great approach to live one’s life. Only buying and keeping material items which either serve us, or bring us joy is definitely a philosophy I have been trying to live by. Still, there is one area in which I am severely lacking: the digital area of my life.

So, I need to step up my game and firstly digitise all my documents, and then go into a deep-cleansing of my digital space. Emails, photos, documents, … all this takes up storage space, and often even leaves a digital environmental footprint.

#5 – Daily gratitude

I’m sure we’ve all heard of it by now, but just in case you haven’t: Gratitude, so appreciating and being thankful for what we have in life, is an important part of living a healthy, happy life.

We need to appreciate what we have, and need to remind ourselves constantly how blessed we are. Each day, there is something to be grateful for – big or small.

Therefore, I want to start a gratitude journal. Each day, I will note down one thing I’m thankful for, and really feel the feeling. I believe that this will help me have a more positive outlook on life, and to continuously look for silver linings and small moments of joy.

#6 – Fitness with an impact

Being fitter, losing weight and working towards our dream body, are usually part of our top 10 goals for the new year. Often this goal is pushed aside within the first month through events such as birthdays. For 2022, I therefore decided to add some motivation to my goal. I will download the “Active giving” app and not only work out to get into shape, but more importantly, to have a positive impact on the environment. Each workout registered on Active giving contributes to the goal of planting trees to reduce global warming. My workouts will therefore contribute to something more important than just my own clothes size, precisely world wide common good!

#7 – Saving food

Transforming leftovers into delicious meals is one of my hobbies, as I have a huge awareness about food waste. Nonetheless, living in the USA taught me that this appreciation of food is not to be taken for granted. For my personal lifestyle, I already try to support organizations such as Too Good To Go, but when I discovered “Food Sharing” I was fascinated by the idea that I could have a bigger impact than just on the personal scale. Food Sharing carefully picks their members through tests and certification to then regularly send them to grocery stores or bakeries for example. They then pick up big amounts of overproduced products and distribute them among their personal network. Becoming a Food Sharing member has been an intriguing idea last year and is therefore one of my resolutions for 2022.

#8 – Email hoarding

Being a big believer in the impact of small actions of individuals, the topic of wasted cloud storage was something that really caught my attention in 2021. When I read about the cooling issues of our beloved cloud systems, I could not believe how much we contribute to this out of pure laziness. The millions of emails that I never read again and my unnecessary messages that simply don’t add any value have become a disturbing factor in my daily life. For 2022, I therefore will go through my entire email account delete once and for all the messages I have been hoarding for years. Moreover, I will pay attention to the content that I receive and delete emails I don’t need to keep right away.

#9 – Potted instead of picked flowers

The smell of fresh flowers is something that I count to the little joys in life. I find them to be a wonderful present to surprise your loved ones or to spoil yourself. Unfortunately, the joy they bring is rather short. Soon their colours vanish and the trash or in the best case the compost are their end destination. To prevent such waste while enjoying the nice smell of flowers, my resolution for next year is to only buy potted plants.

#10 – Personal footprint

As for the last resolution for 2022, I wished to pick something that would show me the impact of my efforts. Therefore, I will use the footprint calculator to detect my carbon footprint for this year. Next year I will do it again to then compare the two footprints and the impact my efforts had on the environment. The WWF footprint test showed me that my impact was 113% (comparison is based on a world wide scale – as for Western countries’ standards, I am doing better than the norm. Nonetheless, I am worse than the global average which is shocking.) and my goal is to lower this number in 2022.

This is it for our 2022 resolutions – but what about yours? Leave them in the comments below, and let’s inspire each other.