New Years Goals: 7 Steps to Better Resolutions
Happy New Year!
At the end of an era, when the confetti rains on a new decade, I'd like to welcome you to your own aspirations. I'm a huge fan of goals. I use them in my profession every day to show growth and monitor progress. However, at the risk of sounding cheesy, it's not often the result I focus on for long, it's the journey. Sure, there is a stamp on the final paperwork when the year's end comes around as to whether or not the goal was achieved. I can't do much about that simple "Met" or "Not yet mastered" printed on the page.
Maybe you're thinking about your resolutions from last year and thinking "Failed." Yet, as long as there is room for improvement, failure simply doesn't apply. You can't fail a task while you're still working on it. Forward progress, no matter how small, is still progress.
Better yet, so what if you've failed. Will that failure cease all further goals? Failure is a part of life, and a great start to growth. I did well in school, and most things I tried when I was young. If I struggled, I often avoided it. I tried new things, but if I didn't do well, it took a lot of determination for me to persist. I had to REALLY want it. That experience left me in circles when I got older. When things didn't come easy, I wanted to avoid them, mostly in relationships. Instead, I've learned that those 'failures,' became windows into my future. I learned from those mistakes. But only when I applied myself and gave it my best try.
Now that I've convinced you to try something, I'd love to talk about goals. How do you make a goal? Why is that goal important to you? How can it be achieved? How do you monitor yourself along the way, and why is that important?
1. Set your priorities:
First of all, goals need to be relevant to you. You should need your goal for some purpose. Maybe you're going after the ever popular weight loss goal. Why? For you health, so you can keep up with your kids/ friends/ etc? Make a list of all the things you might like for yourself this year.
Include different aspects you might not have thought about before. January always brings hype for weight loss, exercise, and healthy eating, but there are many more avenues of goals to consider. Our physical health is only one aspect of our lives. Emotional well being, social connections, spiritual practices, and mental health are all important aspects of our internal processing that can be overlooked.
Try to keep your priorities reflecting what you want out of life. They should match your values and your hopes for the coming year. While I greatly encourage dreaming of the future, this is the place to write down what you can achieve within a shorter time span. Here's my list of priorities for this year:
- Lose 40 lbs.
- Have strength to hike 30 miles.
- Write with purpose.
- Garden
- Feel more energized.
- Cook more whole foods.
- Use less waste.
- Feel good emotionally.
Now I'll challenge you to put those in order of importance to you. What is MOST important to you right now. For me, when I try to put my physical health before my mental health, I always fail. Others may find that completely untrue. Start with one item on the list and go from there. Overwhelming yourself with too many goals at once will leave you unfocused and your attention split.
- Write with purpose.
2. Identify Why?
Try to pull apart why you want to do this thing. It should lend itself to connecting with your life in this moment. It should be rooted in your values and beliefs, not societal norms or family expectations. Clearly exploring the reasoning behind your selection is your basis for motivation. This is the mantra you cling to when the thing gets difficult, boring, or you really don't want to. It needs to be solid and have meaning for you. Here's some examples of solid reasoning vs. not so solid.
Now your motivations should reflect how you are motivated through your life in other ways. If you are not as motivated to care for yourself, you might like to phrase it in a way that matches your values. For example, I want to feel great so I am a happier person for my family to be around. I am big on doing things for others, and sometimes it is hard to be motivated by something that is for me alone. Find what motivates you and create a mantra to help push you through when your goal becomes difficult.
For me, I want to write with a purpose because it makes me feel good. I enjoy writing and finding new ideas to try. I've collected a plethora of resources and I'm excited to share them. It might even change me along the way.
3. Define the goal:
Your list of priorities might be a bit all over the place like mine. I have so many dreams and aspirations for my life that they move from vague to directly specific. In order to set a goal, it needs to be written out and clear. You can say you want to lose weight or journal more, but what that looks like might be drastically different between January and May. This goal is just for you, but you are much more complicated than you give yourself credit for. "Write with a purpose" can mean a brief Instagram post, or a 2,000 word article. Define what you want for yourself in words that mean something to you. The more specific you get, the less you can bargain with yourself later. You can't cheat or get out of what you're setting out to do.
In order feel better emotionally, I will write with a purpose by writing one blog post a week and at least 2 social media posts weekly.
Notice my goal is specific. I use numbers and distinct descriptors. This makes your goal specific and measurable. I've also chosen a task that is possible for me at this time. If I set my goal for something outside my capabilities, it wouldn't be fair if I expected myself to accomplish it. Using an attainable goal will leave you challenged, but not discouraged. Notice I didn't say that I'd publish a full novel, not attainable for me right now. Keep dreaming, but set specific, measurable, attainable goals for the short term.
4. Set timelines & expectations.
Next step is to set up timelines for your goal as well as points to check in along the way. Typically, a new years resolution can be a vague idea set at midnight on January 1st. There might be follow through, but it's often evaluated next January. Instead, set smaller goals along the way, each month or each quarter for example. This gives you a new start each time period, reinvigorating your enthusiasm to the process. It also holds you accountable and allows you to monitor your progress as you go.
At this point, you can also add details specifically describing how you can achieve your goal. What does it success look like for you? Continuously look back to why you chose this undertaking. That success should match your motivations. Working to clearly define your goal will mean a lot as you become excited over you're successes. Without defining the goal clearly, you might consistently push yourself too much or too little. Don't forget, if you need equipment, memberships, or any other materials, set specific plans to prepare.
From January to March, in order feel better emotionally, I will write with a purpose by writing one blog post (2,000 word min) a week and at least 2 social media posts weekly posted by Sunday night each week.
5. Monitor your progress.
Once you're started, write down each time you made an effort to achieve your goal. Sometimes you will fail. You'll completely miss out on what you set to do for that week or day. Other times, you may come close, but miss a deadline or fall short by words, pounds, or minutes. Write down those times too. I love to make a chart on a spreadsheet or a nice checklist. There are TONS of ideas out there for monitoring your goals. One I love is this cute bullet journal page. Simply color in a item each time you meet your goal. Make it your own by picking your favorite scene or something meaningful to you.
From January to March, in order feel better emotionally, I will write with a purpose by writing one blog post (2,000 word min) a week and at least 2 social media posts weekly posted by Sunday night each week.
6. Provide room for interventions.
Now that you've got your handy checklist or tracker of some sort, you can watch your progress. You can see when you are working really hard and meeting your goal. You can also see when trouble arises. If you miss your goal 3 or more times, I'd recommend a change. Continuing with the same process might not be working. If your goal is daily, you might want to be less strict on yourself. If your goal is weekly, you might want to be more strict.
That change can come in many ways. It might be altering how you work on your goal. There are many factors that affect our plans, it is impossible to define them all. Instead, deal with the trials as they come. Perhaps change the time you work on your goal. You could change the location as well. Perhaps you remove distractions by creating a more conducive environment to achieving your goal. Maybe you tell some friends or family about your goal to receive more encouragement and social motivation.
As you progress, you might need multiple interventions. That is OK. Write them down where you keep track of your progress. Listen to yourself and your behavior. That feedback and your reactions to such information gives you the opportunity to adjust. Fluidity in our goals, matching the fluidity in our lives, keeps the process working despite roadblocks.
As a last resort, you may need to redefine your goal. However, if the timeline is achievable, I would encourage you to maintain the goal for that time period. If you do need to redefine your goal, please start back with this process and spend extra time focusing on why. Use your talents to truly explore that area; a visual person might draw a picture, a musical person might make a poem or song. Exploring why you have chosen this goal is the most crucial to achieving it.
7. Celebrate progress.
Finally, recognize when your timeline has ended and identify your level of success. Do NOT expect 100%. Such unrealistic expectations WILL leave you disappointed. Instead, just take note of how you've progressed. I like to notice how it felt along the way. Am I exhausted and relieved the timeline is up? Am I reinvigorated to continue? Do I want to set a similar goal or a new one? These questions will help you learn from your experience.
At the end of your timeline, or along the way, evaluate how you are doing and reward yourself for that progress. Find what works for you. I've tried picking special treats for myself at the end of goals, but I find whether or not I get the treat doesn't match the efforts I put in. Instead, I'm motivated more by checking off my list and discussing with friends what I've accomplished. Finding what rewards you for all the hard work will encourage you to repeat this process and continue to learn about yourself.
Happy New Year!
Best of luck in all your aspirations this year. I wish you all the successes as you monitor your progress, but I also wish that you grace yourself with opportunity for mistakes and failures as well. I hope you can learn from all of these experiences and enjoy the process.
At the end of an era, when the confetti rains on a new decade, I'd like to welcome you to your own aspirations. I'm a huge fan of goals. I use them in my profession every day to show growth and monitor progress. However, at the risk of sounding cheesy, it's not often the result I focus on for long, it's the journey. Sure, there is a stamp on the final paperwork when the year's end comes around as to whether or not the goal was achieved. I can't do much about that simple "Met" or "Not yet mastered" printed on the page.
Maybe you're thinking about your resolutions from last year and thinking "Failed." Yet, as long as there is room for improvement, failure simply doesn't apply. You can't fail a task while you're still working on it. Forward progress, no matter how small, is still progress.
Better yet, so what if you've failed. Will that failure cease all further goals? Failure is a part of life, and a great start to growth. I did well in school, and most things I tried when I was young. If I struggled, I often avoided it. I tried new things, but if I didn't do well, it took a lot of determination for me to persist. I had to REALLY want it. That experience left me in circles when I got older. When things didn't come easy, I wanted to avoid them, mostly in relationships. Instead, I've learned that those 'failures,' became windows into my future. I learned from those mistakes. But only when I applied myself and gave it my best try.
Now that I've convinced you to try something, I'd love to talk about goals. How do you make a goal? Why is that goal important to you? How can it be achieved? How do you monitor yourself along the way, and why is that important?
1. Set your priorities:
First of all, goals need to be relevant to you. You should need your goal for some purpose. Maybe you're going after the ever popular weight loss goal. Why? For you health, so you can keep up with your kids/ friends/ etc? Make a list of all the things you might like for yourself this year.
Include different aspects you might not have thought about before. January always brings hype for weight loss, exercise, and healthy eating, but there are many more avenues of goals to consider. Our physical health is only one aspect of our lives. Emotional well being, social connections, spiritual practices, and mental health are all important aspects of our internal processing that can be overlooked.
Try to keep your priorities reflecting what you want out of life. They should match your values and your hopes for the coming year. While I greatly encourage dreaming of the future, this is the place to write down what you can achieve within a shorter time span. Here's my list of priorities for this year:
- Lose 40 lbs.
- Have strength to hike 30 miles.
- Write with purpose.
- Garden
- Feel more energized.
- Cook more whole foods.
- Use less waste.
- Feel good emotionally.
Now I'll challenge you to put those in order of importance to you. What is MOST important to you right now. For me, when I try to put my physical health before my mental health, I always fail. Others may find that completely untrue. Start with one item on the list and go from there. Overwhelming yourself with too many goals at once will leave you unfocused and your attention split.
- Write with purpose.
2. Identify Why?
Try to pull apart why you want to do this thing. It should lend itself to connecting with your life in this moment. It should be rooted in your values and beliefs, not societal norms or family expectations. Clearly exploring the reasoning behind your selection is your basis for motivation. This is the mantra you cling to when the thing gets difficult, boring, or you really don't want to. It needs to be solid and have meaning for you. Here's some examples of solid reasoning vs. not so solid.
Now your motivations should reflect how you are motivated through your life in other ways. If you are not as motivated to care for yourself, you might like to phrase it in a way that matches your values. For example, I want to feel great so I am a happier person for my family to be around. I am big on doing things for others, and sometimes it is hard to be motivated by something that is for me alone. Find what motivates you and create a mantra to help push you through when your goal becomes difficult.
For me, I want to write with a purpose because it makes me feel good. I enjoy writing and finding new ideas to try. I've collected a plethora of resources and I'm excited to share them. It might even change me along the way.
3. Define the goal:
Your list of priorities might be a bit all over the place like mine. I have so many dreams and aspirations for my life that they move from vague to directly specific. In order to set a goal, it needs to be written out and clear. You can say you want to lose weight or journal more, but what that looks like might be drastically different between January and May. This goal is just for you, but you are much more complicated than you give yourself credit for. "Write with a purpose" can mean a brief Instagram post, or a 2,000 word article. Define what you want for yourself in words that mean something to you. The more specific you get, the less you can bargain with yourself later. You can't cheat or get out of what you're setting out to do.
In order feel better emotionally, I will write with a purpose by writing one blog post a week and at least 2 social media posts weekly.
Notice my goal is specific. I use numbers and distinct descriptors. This makes your goal specific and measurable. I've also chosen a task that is possible for me at this time. If I set my goal for something outside my capabilities, it wouldn't be fair if I expected myself to accomplish it. Using an attainable goal will leave you challenged, but not discouraged. Notice I didn't say that I'd publish a full novel, not attainable for me right now. Keep dreaming, but set specific, measurable, attainable goals for the short term.
4. Set timelines & expectations.
Next step is to set up timelines for your goal as well as points to check in along the way. Typically, a new years resolution can be a vague idea set at midnight on January 1st. There might be follow through, but it's often evaluated next January. Instead, set smaller goals along the way, each month or each quarter for example. This gives you a new start each time period, reinvigorating your enthusiasm to the process. It also holds you accountable and allows you to monitor your progress as you go.
At this point, you can also add details specifically describing how you can achieve your goal. What does it success look like for you? Continuously look back to why you chose this undertaking. That success should match your motivations. Working to clearly define your goal will mean a lot as you become excited over you're successes. Without defining the goal clearly, you might consistently push yourself too much or too little. Don't forget, if you need equipment, memberships, or any other materials, set specific plans to prepare.
From January to March, in order feel better emotionally, I will write with a purpose by writing one blog post (2,000 word min) a week and at least 2 social media posts weekly posted by Sunday night each week.
5. Monitor your progress.
 |
| Doodle Goal Tracker |
From January to March, in order feel better emotionally, I will write with a purpose by writing one blog post (2,000 word min) a week and at least 2 social media posts weekly posted by Sunday night each week.
 |
| Progress Checklist |
6. Provide room for interventions.
Now that you've got your handy checklist or tracker of some sort, you can watch your progress. You can see when you are working really hard and meeting your goal. You can also see when trouble arises. If you miss your goal 3 or more times, I'd recommend a change. Continuing with the same process might not be working. If your goal is daily, you might want to be less strict on yourself. If your goal is weekly, you might want to be more strict.
That change can come in many ways. It might be altering how you work on your goal. There are many factors that affect our plans, it is impossible to define them all. Instead, deal with the trials as they come. Perhaps change the time you work on your goal. You could change the location as well. Perhaps you remove distractions by creating a more conducive environment to achieving your goal. Maybe you tell some friends or family about your goal to receive more encouragement and social motivation.
As you progress, you might need multiple interventions. That is OK. Write them down where you keep track of your progress. Listen to yourself and your behavior. That feedback and your reactions to such information gives you the opportunity to adjust. Fluidity in our goals, matching the fluidity in our lives, keeps the process working despite roadblocks.
As a last resort, you may need to redefine your goal. However, if the timeline is achievable, I would encourage you to maintain the goal for that time period. If you do need to redefine your goal, please start back with this process and spend extra time focusing on why. Use your talents to truly explore that area; a visual person might draw a picture, a musical person might make a poem or song. Exploring why you have chosen this goal is the most crucial to achieving it.
7. Celebrate progress.
Finally, recognize when your timeline has ended and identify your level of success. Do NOT expect 100%. Such unrealistic expectations WILL leave you disappointed. Instead, just take note of how you've progressed. I like to notice how it felt along the way. Am I exhausted and relieved the timeline is up? Am I reinvigorated to continue? Do I want to set a similar goal or a new one? These questions will help you learn from your experience.
At the end of your timeline, or along the way, evaluate how you are doing and reward yourself for that progress. Find what works for you. I've tried picking special treats for myself at the end of goals, but I find whether or not I get the treat doesn't match the efforts I put in. Instead, I'm motivated more by checking off my list and discussing with friends what I've accomplished. Finding what rewards you for all the hard work will encourage you to repeat this process and continue to learn about yourself.
Happy New Year!
Best of luck in all your aspirations this year. I wish you all the successes as you monitor your progress, but I also wish that you grace yourself with opportunity for mistakes and failures as well. I hope you can learn from all of these experiences and enjoy the process.
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