If you are like me, it’s hard to believe that 2024 comes to an end next week. Happy New Year and welcome 2025! Every year, millions of people make New Year’s resolutions, hoping to spark positive change. Chances are, more than a couple of the most common resolutions will look familiar to you:
• Exercise more
• Lose weight
• Get organized
• Learn a new skill or hobby
• Live life to the fullest/ Have fun
• Save more money / spend less money
• Quit smoking
• Spend more time with family and friends
Or, you might have a resolution that is most important to you but is not on this list. How are you approaching the new year? Some years it’s easier than other years to decide what you want to be different in the new year — I put together some suggestions about how to approach resolutions any time of the year.
Mentally Prepare: Changing ingrained habits is no easy task, so, it is important to take a step back and get ready for that impending change.
Your resolution may be in an area where you lack progress but don’t forget to savor the progress made and find some small way to celebrate. Those happy feelings are useful to keep you moving forward when you are feeling challenged. Even little steps are worth celebrating.
As you start thinking about the changes you want to implement, make sure to do the following:
• Stay positive
• Try not to make big/quick changes
• Change should be gradual
• Build on smaller changes
• Allow a little room for error
Make goals that motivate you: You would be surprised how often people set goals that are not for themselves. These goals could be dictated or coerced by a friend, spouse, or parental / peer pressure.
While it’s nice to have some external support, if you don’t share the same passion, the resolution has a small chance of succeeding and could even be dead on arrival.
To do this, you need to make sure the goal you set is important to you and only you and that there is value or benefit for you in achieving the goal. It is these two things that will provide the reason and willingness to take action. This is also known as motivation!
Limit resolutions to a manageable amount: A common mistake in the resolution setting is having too many and spreading yourself too thin. Too many resolutions are a great way not to achieve the many goals you have set out for yourself.
Thus, you should make a short list of resolutions that you can manage in the upcoming year. Knowing that short list of priorities is the hard part. The key here is understanding how to prioritize.
Know your limitations and personal bandwidth. With that in mind, you should focus on your top priorities while balancing how much attention you can honestly devote to a resolution. It’s better to tackle one resolution well than multiple resolutions poorly.
Be Specific: When it comes to setting resolutions, it’s easy to set bad goals that could lead to poor follow-through. Fortunately, SMART goal-setting framework can help you craft better goals.
SMART goals are:
• Specific — Articulate the resolution as clearly as possible. For example, quitting smoking is better than being healthy. While “being healthy” is great, the wording can be interpreted in many ways.
• Measurable — Quantify your resolution if possible, i.e. I will lose 10% of my body weight or I will lose 10 pounds.
• Attainable — Choose a goal within the realm of possibility, but yet challenging. Making 100 friends this year would be amazing, but probably pretty hard to do. On the other, making 10 new friends is doable.
• Relevant — Keep it relevant to your priorities and goals.
• Time-sensitive — Give yourself a time frame in which to achieve a goal. A deadline will instill some urgency and provide a time when you can celebrate your success.
Break up big goals into smaller goals: A lot of us tend to be over-eager and grandiose when it comes to resolutions. We have the best of intentions and may accidentally take on a goal that is too big to achieve. Thus, it’s helpful to divide a big goal into smaller goals that are more achievable.
Write down your goals: While it’s great to have goals, it is a good idea to write them down. Here are a few ways you can document your resolutions for 2024:
• Write them in a journal
• Draft an email to yourself
• Store in a note-taking tool
• Print and tape to the wall
Review your resolution regularly: Let’s face it, if you are not thinking about your resolution regularly, you are not going to follow through. Thus, a crucial part of realizing your goal is a regular review.
If you fall off track, get back on quickly: Setbacks can happen, but it should not stop you from re-starting. And if there is a setback, it’s important to understand what lead to that moment, and how you can avoid a similar situation in the future.