The year is 2023, and the date is 31st December. The time is midnight. Almost every person in the world will be thinking about their New Year’s resolutions.
The past year was full of unpredictability, uncertainty, and unknown. But now, it’s time to look into the future and hope for something new.
But setting new year’s resolutions can be a dread. Let’s be honest, most likely you set New Year’s
Resolutions before but didn’t follow through. You may be even looking at your list of goals stuck to your fridge cringing that you didn’t do it all.
I get it, I have been there too. For years, I didn’t even set any goals. And when I finally did, I didn’t keep them. But that is a thing of the past.
Read on to learn how to make and keep a new year’s resolution in 3 easy steps, so you succeed next year, no matter what.
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How to Make New Year’s Resolutions
Before you set on the journey of making a new year’s resolution, let’s build some foundation. Setting goals is an art in itself. And like anything else in life, it requires time.
If you used to make up your yearly goals five minutes to midnight without any planning, then keeping them was a challenge.
That is why I want you to open your calendar right now and block some time for goal setting. I know you want to shout to the whole world that you want to lose weight, eat better, exercise more, stress less, or have more time.
After all, the first rule in manifestation is stating your goal.
But just because you want to do something doesn’t mean it will happen. My new year’s tradition is going to the beach on the 1st of January. I used to sit on the beach and make a list in my head of all the things I wanted to achieve.
By the time I got home, I didn’t remember most of the things I wanted to do. Not to mention that I didn’t have a clue how I would do them. Then the 2nd and 3rd of January would happen, and of a sudden, it was March, and I was still thinking about my goals.
It is not that I didn’t have them. I didn’t put a plan in place to make them happen. And without a plan, a goal is just a dream.
So, when can you sit down, grab a piece of paper and plan your dreams to come true?
3 Steps for Mastering New Year’s Resolutions
Before you even jump into making your new year’s resolution a win and putting a plan in place to keep it, I want you to do some brainstorming.
As they say, there are so many things we want to do and so little time. So, focusing on the right goal is a must.
Brainstorm all the ideas you have and write down all the goals you want to achieve (not only in the upcoming year but overall). Keep writing them down until you feel like you exhausted your imagination.
Don’t worry if your list is long. You will cross out things as you go along with the rest of the activities.
You may notice that some goals are interdependent. Meaning that one cannot happen without the other. You may even see a timeline because one goal may need to be completed before you move to another.
This brainstorming activity will help you not only focus on the most meaningful goal, but it will help you to see what direction you heading in life. You will have the opportunity to narrow down your goals because too many are a crowd.
Once you pick a goal, here are three tips to make it a success.
#1 Take a Stock of the Past Year
You want to achieve your goals right now, preferably this week. Following this way of thinking it’s easy to forget that sometimes it may take a little bit longer to get to where you want to be.
That is why there are two things you need to do to make and keep your New Year’s resolutions.
You need to reflect on the past year and acknowledge all the good you received. Trust me, not all that happened to you this year was bad.
Maybe you didn’t smash your goals the way you wanted, maybe some external circumstances altered your plans, and you needed to pivot. But I can guarantee that there were a lot of good things that happened too.
Reflecting on all the positive things that happened to you through the year, will help you build self-confidence so that after all, you can make things happen. It will help you to get moving when you see roadblocks on your path.
But it will also help you see where you might have come up short. Maybe your goals were too bold to achieve in twelve months? Maybe you didn’t have all the resources you thought you would have.
That is OK. You can see it now and adjust it now.
#2 Set Achievable Goals
I know you want to achieve all your goals, after all, that is why you have them! But goals have different sizes. Some goals are a little bigger than others, so it will take you longer than twelve months to achieve them.
The beauty of setting yearly goals is that you have a clear deadline. Your goal needs to be achievable in twelve months. This gives enough for your goal to be challenging but not out of reach.
Your goal may be to lose weight, but if you are not planning for it, then comes December, and you may have some hard discussions with yourself. How would you break such a big goal into something you can accomplish within the next twelve months?
Losing weight is a big goal. It involves changing your eating and exercise habits, as well as your mindset. After all, you want to lose the kilos and stay at your ideal weight.
Or maybe you are dreaming about living in an exotic destination, in a nice house on the beach? But how close are you to this scenario? Are you financially able to do it? Have you even picked a destination?
What can you do in the next twelve months to come up closer to your dream?
#3 Break Big Goals Into Small Steps
I used to find myself surprised that the whole year had passed, and I didn’t move on to the goal. I was planning big things, and of a sudden, it was December again, and my goal was in the early development stage.
You need to break your big goal into small easy-to-follow steps.
Creating mid-year and quarterly checks can definitely help and should be part of our yearly goal planning. It will help you to see progress and see if you are heading in the right direction. Because if not, you’ll have the time to change it.
However, your yearly goal must be part of your day.
It will depend on the magnitude of your goal but breaking it into daily actions is the ultimate way to achieve it. You won’t climb Mt. Everest if you hike one mountain, you won’t lose those extra kilos if you go to the gym once, and you won’t learn to swim if you go to the swimming pool once.
Only by consistent daily actions you build momentum and come close to your end goal. How big your daily actions need to be will be determined by how big your goal is.
How to Stick To Your New Year’s Resolutions
I am most likely the biggest optimist when it comes to time. I never can anticipate how much time things will take. But the truth is that things will always take more time than you think.
That is probably the biggest reflection I try to keep in mind when setting and keeping New Year’s resolutions.
Your goals are big and bold, but some may need preparation, logistics, and a different perspective. Break your big goals into smaller steps and clear deadlines, and you’ll set yourself up for success.
And to truly keep your New Year’s resolutions, your annual goals need to be part of your daily life. I can’t wait to see you achieve them!
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