New Year New Plan: A Different Approach to Resolutions

Happy New Year! The holiday season is winding down, which likely means the chaos of shopping, wrapping, cooking, and visiting is also coming to an end for you. Cue the deep breath of relief.

But as you stare at the empty space where your Christmas tree or other decorations once stood, you may find yourself wondering “now what?”. Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I get a little uneasy when things are calm (like when a toddler is quiet for more than five minutes). As a planner at heart, I suppose I’m in constant search of the next activity or project that needs my attention.

Enter new year’s resolutions. It seems natural that as one year comes to an end, we take inventory and evaluate the year as we remember it. What went well? What did I learn? What did I accomplish? Where did I come up short? What would I change? How can I do better?

Some will journal, make lists, and complete a more thorough, detailed evaluation while for others it may look more like fleeting thoughts that come and go as you realize we’re on the brink of another year. I typically fall somewhere on the spectrum between the two. However, the planner I bought for 2022 has some pretty detailed goal-setting pages in the front of it, so I took a little extra time to really think about the past year and what I really want to get out of the upcoming year. For anyone who is interested, this is the planner (no affiliation, just a personal suggestion).

When you hear the phrase new year’s resolutions, what is your initial reaction? Are you excited about a fresh start? Are you anxious about planning or putting them into action? Or do you maybe shrug it off because you don’t make resolutions?

It’s true that the vast majority of people don’t stick to their resolutions for more than a few weeks, if they make them at all. We start with such hope to be healthier or more financially stable or happier or more successful in whatever ways that are important to you. So what happens?

Well, the easy answer is life happens. You can have all the ambition to exercise more often and may buy or dig out some equipment or join a gym or set your alarm to wake up early to go for a run. Then someone gets sick or a project at work requires more of your time or some other distraction pops up causing you to miss a day. Then you miss another, and before you know it you’ve missed two weeks. You tell yourself it’s easier to start at the beginning of the week and you’ll get back on track starting Monday, but it comes and goes along with another month. Big sigh of defeat. Maybe when it warms up. Maybe next year. Maybe.

Avoiding resolutions all together is starting to look better by the minute.

A New Approach to Resolutions

The more truthful answer is we set ourselves up for failure. There are a few ways this happens, but if we can follow some basic steps when determining our resolutions for the upcoming year, we can increase our chances for success.

What Do You Actually Want?

Do you actually want to run a marathon? Does intermittent fasting even make sense for you and your schedule? Will the stress of cutting back on spending and tracking every dollar be outweighed by the freedom you’ll get from the resulting increase in savings? Maybe yes. Maybe not.

If you haven’t already, now is a good time to take a step back and set your priorities. There are a number of things that demand your attention at any given point in your weeks, months, and year. But when push comes to shove, what holds priority in your life? For example, if you have an opportunity to advance your career but it will take away some of your personal or family time, which is more important to you?

Through the lens of your priorities, take a look at your resolutions. If you don’t have goals that align with your highest priorities, how will you achieve them? That’s not to say you can’t set additional goals, but at least when push comes to shove you’ll know which ones you’re willing to compromise on and which you are not.

What Is Your Why?

It’s easy to gravitate toward those goals that society tells us we should want—good health, happiness, money, success. The trouble is, what those things mean vary greatly from person to person. So while friends, family, media, and the industries that benefit from those things will tell you what they should mean, they are something you really need to define for yourself.

Beyond establishing your personal definition for each of those things, you need to determine whether those are actually priorities in your life. I think most of us would like to be healthy, is losing weight part of that definition or priority for you? Don’t let societal pressures or the lies you’ve come to believe over the years dictate what you want to accomplish.

Once you’ve aligned your resolutions with your priorities and are sure that they are what you want, not what you’ve been told you should want, the next step is to dig into the why behind your resolutions. Why is each goal important to you? What will you get from pursuing each? What will accomplishing each mean to you?

Exploring the answers to these and similar questions will help you get to the true intention of your resolutions. When things get challenging, remembering your why can give you the motivation needed to keep pushing forward.

Get Specific and Break It Down

Deciding to exercise more often or save more money is going to get you far. If you go from exercising once a month to twice a month or save an extra five dollars, you’ve technically met your goals, but was that the intention behind the resolution?

When you get specific with your goals (exercise three times a week, save five dollars each week, etc.), you have something to work toward and measure against. Yes, it’s important to keep in mind the overarching goals, priorities, and intentions, but being specific when it comes to your goals makes those things more achievable.

Further, breaking down those goals into chunks helps make them manageable. Break it down by month or quarter. Identify steps to take one at a time, like a specific skill you want to learn or improve to advance your career.

Recalibrate

As we already discussed, life happens. Things are going to get in the way and priorities may change. That’s why it’s important to recalibrate throughout the year. You’re not stuck with the resolutions you make at the beginning of the year.

You don’t fail just because you don’t meet your initial goals. It’s okay, and in fact necessary, to adjust your goals along the way. Let it be a fluid, continuous process. Take time to assess what’s working, what’s not, and what may be a more obtainable goal than you initially thought.

So as you set, or reassess, your new year’s resolutions, give yourself some grace. Even after getting specific with what you want and why and breaking down your goals, things are going to happen. It’s okay. As long as you stay true to yourself and continue working toward your priorities, you are succeeding.

What is one thing you hope to achieve in the next year?