New Year’s Resolution Ideas

Another new year is here and with that comes the intention of setting goals, creating new habits and working toward our best self, right? Today, I’m sharing tips for planning your New Year’s resolution ideas that will help you not only in the planning process, but sticking to the resolutions and goals you set.

We all know that as a new year approaches, we start seeing and hearing all the buzz words – setting goals, new year’s resolution, vision for 20**. We see a blank slate, a time to try something new, the perfect time to start fresh or “jump back on the wagon”. So, we set some goals or resolutions, only to stick to them for a few weeks (or maybe a few months) and then we fall off. Sound familiar? I know I can relate!

Our problem most of the time…we want it to be easy or a quick fix and when it gets hard or doesn’t happen quickly enough, we give up on it! Why do we do that?

I want to help you let go of the “resolution” and “quick fix” mindset and really think about setting long term goals and intentions for the new year.

Just Start

If you are waiting for the perfect time or circumstance to set intentions for your new year’s resolution ideas, then you’ll never start. There really is no “perfect” time. Life will continue to happen forcing you to keep putting it off. Just. Do. It. Start now!

Carve out a small block of time in your day that you know you can be present and free from distractions and get to work. It doesn’t have to be a long block of time as you can get a lot accomplished in 30 minutes – 1 hour uninterrupted. That’s all you really need!

Lastly, grab a pen and a notebook or something where you can have space to jot down your thoughts and new year’s resolution ideas and ultimately keep your goals for you to review throughout the year.

“If you don’t make the time creating the life you want, you’re going to spend a lot of time dealing with a life you don’t want.”

– Kevin Ngo

Set the Tone for the Year You Hope to Have

BEFORE you ever set an intention for the new year, ask yourself some key questions and answer them honestly. Here are some examples:

• What goals have you set in the past that you did not reach? Why did you not reach them? What held you back?
• What is something you’ve wanted to do, but didn’t take action to get there?
• What is realistic for your lifestyle?
• What is attainable for you right now?
• Are you open and willing to trying different action steps/behaviors than in the past to get where you want? If so, what are you willing to do opposite of the past?
• Are you holding yourself back?

After answering the questions, start writing a vision for your year. Don’t hold anything back at this point, your freely writing to brainstorm some ideas and essentially manifesting the tone of your year.

Once you have all ideas down, go back and look at your list with a realistic view and determine 3-4 that you feel are best suited for this time in your life and where you want to go. I don’t suggest any more than 3-4 because as you add more, it gets harder to attain all of them. You want to set yourself up for success early and if you have too many on your plate, you will get overwhelmed which is not setting yourself up for success.

Lastly, there are three big components of a well thought out goal…it must be realistic, attainable, and have a time stamp to it. Without these things, you don’t have a solid foundation for a goal and you will fall off. If your 3-4 goals do not meet this criteria, go back and rework your goals.

Small Things add up to Big Things

I’m all for having some big long term goals on your list, but before you can achieve the big goal, start with smaller actionable steps. Sometimes the big goal can get overwhelming just looking at it. Maybe that is why you haven’t reached some of your goals in the past. We tend to look at the end goal and get overwhelmed on where to start or caught up in all the things that we have to do to get there. Starting small is not silly, it’s smart!

Break the big goal into smaller goals

Where you do you want to be on your journey to your big goal in 3 months? 6 months? 9 months? You can really use any small time frame within the year that you want, but you need to break your bigger goal into at least 2 smaller goals with the same criteria of being realistic, attainable and including a time stamp.

These small goals are to help keep you accountable and moving toward your end goal. Plus, you feel good when you reach one of them and can really start seeing progress being made. It gives you motivation to keep going.

Review and set your daily actions

What small actions can you do each day in 5, 10, or 15 minutes that get your closer to your small goals? Is there something you need to add into your day that gets you closer to your goal?

Take a look at your day and see where (if any) adjustments needs to be made to include any small actions necessary to reaching your goal. A list is a great way to see what small actions you want to accomplish each day because you can check them off when complete. If you fall off one day (or maybe a few more), that’s okay! Pick up the next day and don’t dwell on the fact that you didn’t do what you needed to do. You don’t need a new week or new month to jump back on. Each day is a fresh start. The sooner you get back on, the easier it will be to do it.

Final thoughts on New Year’s resolution ideas

New Year’s resolutions are usually quick and unrealistic “goals” that we will just jot down somewhere. Because of that, we fall off and don’t always “get back on the horse” which then leads to some feelings of regret when we reflect back on our year.

I will be taking my own advice this year. I have not been consistent in setting goals (let’s be honest, I’ve been more consistent in the lack of goals) in the last few years. If I have, I have not stuck to all of them. I’ve noticed the difference that has made in where I feel I am moving and added to some feelings I have of being stagnant. But with me taking a leap and starting this blog, along with some other personal motivations, I’m vowing to be more intentional in what I want from the year.

I challenge you to take control and take the long road instead of looking for the easy quick fix. I can’t promise it will be easy or comfortable, but we have to make the choice. Choose to make this year different in your approach, thoughts, and perspective of the journey. Embrace the journey and let’s see where it takes us! So, let’s begin planning our new year’s resolution ideas., I mean goals. Who’s with me?