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As we head into the new year, many people have high hopes and goals that they set for themselves to start the year off on the right foot.
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, people tend to seek immediate results, then when they don’t see those results, it is quickly tossed aside with a “I’ll try again next year,” mentality. In reality, setting goals is about creating a framework that is easy to follow and can allow you to develop a routine that becomes a part of your daily life. Setting a goal that is extremely different from your current daily life habits is going to be extremely difficult to maintain or achieve. For example, if your New Year’s resolution is to stop drinking soda, but you consume anywhere from 3-5 cans worth of soda a day, the drastic change of habit will be hard, and you may find yourself reaching for a soda can within a week or two, reverting back to your normal routine.
Another analogy can be seen with exercise habits. If you live a typically sedentary lifestyle, but want to start running everyday, it is going to be hard on your body both physically and mentally to adjust to running on a daily basis. For one, your daily routine does not have a dedicated time slot for exercise, meaning you are already going to be greatly changing your daily routine overnight. You will also be putting your body through a physically demanding task that you are not used to, which can lead to sore muscles and an increased risk of injury. This could lead you to abandoning your goals and being back at square one, often feeling more discouraged than ever.
So how can we set goals for ourselves and stick to them?
Slow and steady wins the race
This saying is popular for a reason. Setting small goals and making small adjustments that work toward achieving our larger goal can help us stick with our resolutions without drastically changing our routine overnight.
Using the above examples, rather than go from several sodas a day to zero, it would be more achievable to reduce the number of soda cans a day for several weeks. Then slowly drop the number of sodas per day, while also having a goal that focuses on consuming more water instead of the sodas. This way, you are focusing on your long-term goal of not drinking soda by setting small, achievable goals that lead to long-term success of your larger goal.
Give yourself grace
There will be days that you do not succeed at working towards your goals. This does not mean you need to give up entirely. Consistency is always possible, but perfection never is. Allow yourself grace if you do not always hit your goals.
If your goal is to run everyday, so you set small goals of getting at least 10 minutes of walking exercise a day, but do not exercise for a few days, you do not need to give up on your goal of moving more and running. By giving yourself grace, you can reduce the feelings of discouragement and are more likely to keep at your goals.
Create goals that you want to accomplish
Often, we are persuaded by family, friends and society to do certain things or have certain goals in mind. However, at the end of the day your life is your own to live. Goals that you create because they are goals you actually want to achieve are much easier to achieve than goals that you create because you feel it’s the goals you’re supposed to have for yourself. The New Year is a fresh start, and creating goals for yourself that you want to achieve is the perfect place to start.
As we head into 2023 and you are starting your New Year's resolutions, either on a personal level or professional level, remember that small, achievable goals that are centered around what you personally want to achieve this year can transform your life for the better. This transformation starts by changing your daily habits one small step at a time to create habits that can last a lifetime.
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