It’s that time of year when your news feed is cluttered with ads for exercise machines, juice cleanse methods, or workout gear, and while you may not have even been Googling any of these things, you feel targeted because when it comes to military spouse resolutions, they don’t always look the same as others.
The New Year builds much anticipation for improvement of some sort that we often set resolutions that are just too lofty to ever achieve. This culture has turned the fresh start of a new year into a chore. Let’s refresh the new year! We’re focusing on military spouse resolutions for military spouses, because who deserves a new start more than us?
READ MORE: Why Vacations are Important to a Military Family
12 Military Spouse Resolutions You Can Keep
Unplug More Often
The military lifestyle is an adventurous one, so don’t let screens distract you from the current setting you’re in, because before you know it, orders will sweep you somewhere new and you don’t want to miss out on moments now. Consider this when you’re planning your military spouse resolutions. Take a day or weekend to shut off your phone completely or turn on Do Not Disturb and see how productive you can be. You’ll realize how often you have trained your eyes to search for your phone, but by setting it aside, you can start re-training your habits and lessening the reliance on a device.
Ditch the Scale
There are plenty of articles and gym membership sales around if you want to create a fitness resolution, but it’s about time someone encourages you to be happy with the body you already have. This year, make the resolution to lose the scale, not pounds. Throwing away the scale will kickstart your new mentality of feeling confident in your body. For those who love to exercise, this will steer your mentality towards working out for your health and mental well-being. For those who struggle with the motivation to exercise, give yourself some grace. You can be healthy and look great in workout leggings. You don’t need a scale to tell you that.
Eat Cleaner
The Amazon phenomenon of the last decade has produced a myriad of delivery services available at the touch of a finger. Get back on track with a healthier diet by making meals at home. The military likes to make most things harder for families, so make something easy for yourself and try out a food subscription service that delivers ingredients and directions straight to your home. Or check out the variety of clean meal recipes we have on Daily Mom. In 2020, it’s going to be hard to find an excuse for the drive-thru making these military spouse resolutions easier than ever to keep.
Unless you’re PCSing. Then that’s always okay.
READ MORE: 15 Healthy Ideas for New Years Meals to Start the Year Off Right
Travel Where Relatives Aren’t
There’s really only one easy rule to follow if a military spouse wants to plan the ultimate vacation: go anywhere that extended family is not. Vacation time is hard to come by when a spouse is on active duty, so when those holiday liberties come up, the instinct is usually to buy those plane tickets home. But is that truly a restful vacation? Is it just a fun visit to a place you’ve been before? This year, tell your family how much you love them, and then spend your holiday far from anyone you might know. Adventure together, share new experiences, and make memories in strange places. As far as military spouse resolutions go, this one goes very, very far.
Make Friends in Another Branch
Military spouses tend to stay within the guidelines of who and how their spouses are allowed to interact with when it comes to rank; however, what about other branches of service? There’s a whole world out there of other military spouses who are enduring the same hardships as you, and chances are, there’s an installation nearby. Seek local Facebook groups and find a new friend who can shed light on another military branch. Swap stories over coffee and you might just find that people from another branch can be just as cool as you.
Donate Clothes
Shrink your laundry pile, spread some generosity, and do some spring cleaning all at the same time. Military spouse resolutions don’t always have to change our dietary habits or workout routines. Sort through your and your spouse’s clothes and slim down on what you actually need. Then take your pile to a location charity or donation store. Your next PCS movers will thank you.
READ MORE: Minimalist Mom: Living Happily with Less Stuff
Learn a Trick
Small talk at spouse socials: the proverbial awkward situation that every military spouse has experienced. Learn a new trick and break the ice at the first social of the new year by demonstrating your new skill. You don’t have to be an extrovert or steal all the attention of the party, but it will give you something to do to spark conversation with at least one person instead of conjuring up the same old questions like, “How long have you been living here?”
Be More Patient
The military will always take and take from you. Accept it, but fight back by being patient with yourself as you work through the frustrations. Be patient with others, too–whether it be that neighbor whose dog keeps your baby up at night or the snail of a worker at the commissary–because you never know who else is suffering from the military lifestyle just as much as you. Military spouse resolutions that make a positive impact on those around us are a win for everyone.
Volunteer
Every squadron is always looking for more volunteers, and if you’re a spouse tired of spending the day wrangling children, find more purpose in your day by offering to help once a week (or more) with fellow military spouses.
Correspond with Friends From Previous Installations
Send a handwritten letter, slide into DMs, send a Facebook message or Marco Polo, or simply pick up the phone to check in on friends you have lost touch with over the last several moves. The military makes it easy to make fast friends, but they don’t do anything to help nourish those friendships when you’re forced to leave just a few years later. This year, make an effort to rekindle those relationships!
Take a Staycation and Don’t Post About It
Plan a staycation this year. Maximize all the fun your local area has to offer, but don’t post about how amazing it was. You don’t need the pressure of getting every perfect photo of your kids running through the fountains just to show your followers you did something awesome. Save those memories for yourself.
Treat Yourself to a Haircut
Your spouse isn’t the only one who is allowed to have these. Pay a little extra for a shampoo wash and scalp massage, get a fresh look with a big chop, or spruce up your color with highlights. This is a brand new decade we’re talking about. What better way to step into it than to present a new you?
Choose one of these military spouse resolutions or dream big and pick one for each month of the year. Either way, share with our team on social media to let us know how it’s going!
Author: Daily Mom Military
Photo Credits: Pixabay, Pexels
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How to stick to your resolutions beyond January.
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