14 Little Resolutions We Should All Make For The New Year

1. When you’re faced with an awkward situation, fight that natural instinct to look down at your phone.

2. Stop comparing your college degree, college debt, or salary to those of your peers. Their gauge of success is very different from yours.

3. Whenever you begin to gripe about work, just remember, this is what grown ups do, and more importantly, this is how grown ups keep learning.

4. Instead of rushing through things just to label them as finished, really take your time with them. Make sure it’s a job well done.

5. When you wake up in the morning, take a few minutes for yourself before you check Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and any other social media. It will still be there. It can wait.

6. Rather than being afraid that you’re missing something in your own life, try to be genuinely happy when the people you know share things in their lives that are going well.

7. Work towards finding peace in the fact that nobody has it together at 22, or 27, or even ever. We’re all trying to figure it out, and all trying to pretend like we know what we’re doing.

8. Instead of living in fear that you won’t fit some prescribed mold, embrace the fact that being different opens you up to different opportunities.

9. Don’t second-guess every decision you make. Learn to trust your instinct.

10. Worrying about the future is understandable, but try to take each day as it comes.

11. Remember all those times when your parents told you that you were special, and that you could be whatever you wanted when you grew up. Prove them right.

12. Instead of defaulting on your loans, use this year to create a plan to pay them off.

13. Live in the moment as often as you can. You’re still growing up. If you don’t have to do so quickly, don’t.

14. Sit with your unhappiness, however momentary, instead of fighting it. You don’t have to be happy all the time, and if you acknowledge the bad feelings with the good, chances are you’ll end up happier overall.