It’s that time of the year where everyone is determining their New Year’s resolutions. You know, the ones built on the idea of a life you would like to live, but often never become anything more than an idea. A resolution is a promise to yourself, and it’s usually more open-ended than a specific goal. Most often, it entails altering some aspect of your life, such as eating healthier, focusing on loved ones more, or managing your finances better.
But just determining to “be a better person” won’t necessarily produce change. You need something more tangible, more measurable. That’s where the power of goals comes in.
The best resolutions are made up of goals. While the resolution is the overarching theme or the implied direction you wish to take with your life, goals are the activities that support that theme or the specific steps to take you in that direction. Simply put, goals are the actions we take in order to achieve our resolutions.
Here are a few tips for setting goals for the new year:
Create goals for different areas of your life.
If you set one or two goals in each area of your life, you will begin to see a ripple effect in other areas. Consider setting work goals, relationship goals, health goals, finance goals, spiritual goals, recreational goals, and so on. Then notice the difference in other areas of your life as you begin to work toward these goals.
Post your goals where you can see them regularly.
This will help you to not only remember your goals but to keep them at the forefront of your mind. Keeping them visible will help you to stay focused on the goals that you originally set without getting distracted by new ones.
Check in and track your progress.
Check in with yourself periodically. Make note of the progress you’ve made on each of your goals. Take some time — daily, weekly, or monthly (this depends on the specific goal) — to reflect on your wins and acknowledge the successes you've had. No win is too small to be celebrated. Are you falling short on any of your goals? Do any need to be adjusted? (Pro tip: just because you’re not on track to reach a specific goal doesn’t mean you toss it to the side altogether. Maybe you just need to adjust and re-establish a more realistic and manageable goal!)
Make goals that are measurable.
In order to stick to your goals and achieve your overall resolutions, you need to be able to consistently see that you’re on the right track and to note when you have achieved these goals. The best way to do that is to set goals that can be measured again and again over short periods of time. This will also help keep you on track and make it easy for you to note how far you have to go.
Seek accountability.
Share your goals with someone who will keep you accountable. Maybe that’s a colleague or your significant other. Whoever you chose to be your accountability person, make sure that they clearly understand your goals, and that you are sharing your progress with them as well. An accountability partner gives you someone to answer to in your actions and results — a person that can keep you on track and honest. They can also be someone that can help you check in on your progress, and be a constant reminder of why you set the goals that you did.
It takes work to keep New Year’s resolutions and to achieve the goals that will get you there. So, remember to have grace with yourself if you slip up a couple of times. While this journey is not an easy one, we hope that these tips will help you accomplish all that you set out to in 2020! What is one specific goal you have set for yourself in 2020 that these tips can help you achieve?
With love,
The Rivvly Fam