How to set successful New Year’s Resolutions (that actually stick)
The New Year is already upon us and if you’re thinking about your New Years’ Resolutions with dread, fear not!
Take a look at these steps to support you in not only setting your resolutions but (gasp!) actually achieving them come this time next year.
PHASE ONE: PREP
Set aside an hour to work through the prep and planning phases. I know that might feel overwhelming so ask for help if you need it, split the time up into fifteen minute chunks over a week, skip a night of TV watching, something. If you need support to find the time, reach out!
Consider choosing a word or phrase to guide your year:
- In a journal or on a piece of paper, reflect on what you want the next twelve months to feel like. And I mean really feel like. How does your day go? How do you move through the day? What lights you on fire and allows you to keep going through any setback? Who is supporting you along the way, celebrating your wins and holding you during the losses? What's different and what's the same? What helps you feel your most authentic self?
- Reread the vision and jot down a few words that come to mind. Words that are empowering, words that uplift you.
- Allow the words to swirl around in your mind, in your heart. Reread your future vision and words one more time and settle on a single word, your theme for the next year.
- Bonus Step: Print it out, post it, make a vision board. Put it as the background on your phone. Something or many things to keep it in your heart and mind.Once you’ve got your word, ask yourself to dream big! Pie in the sky, what do you want? Even if it’s unreasonable - ask yourself who it is unreasonable for. If it’s anyone but you, don’t worry about it.
From those big dreams, which ones work with the word or theme you’ve chosen for yourself? For any that don’t, release them (for now - it’s ok it doesn’t support you at this time but it might in the future).
For the goals still on your list, ask yourself why you want it. Does it serve the highest version of yourself and your life and what you see for yourself? If it doesn’t - you’ve guessed it - it gets taken off the list.
PHASE TWO: PLANOk now you have your goals for the year, guided by your theme. Break down each of those goals (suggestion to choose one to three only) into three month goals. What do you want by March, June, September, December?
Break those three month goals down one to two more times until you have smaller steps that feel A) doable and B) sustainable.
PHASE THREE: ACTStart slow and easy. Resolutions don’t (historically) work because we go all out and focus on nothing else and then we crash and burn. Give yourself permission to introduce one to two things at a time for two to three weeks and layer. Each new habit has to be sustainable and you have to give yourself permission to experiment with what works and doesn’t. You can’t fail when you’re just learning what supports you and what doesn’t.
Get support. Work with a coach for accountability or ask a friend if they want to join you in this goal, for example. Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum so leverage the people and resources around you.
Start now. Why wait until January 1 to go after your dreams? Pick even just your theme word to start guiding decisions you make and how you show up. This isn’t just about what you’re DOING but who you are BEING along the way.
You’re worthy, right now. Just as you are.
Losing weight or adding muscle, learning Italian or starting to knit won’t change that.
So consider that a reminder before you get started, too.
You get to decide what success looks like for you, and no one else knows it for you, but you.
Here's to a New Year - or even just a new day - where you feel proud of you for just being you.
Hey, I’m Caitlin! I’m a certified health coach and life coach and I’m here to bring sustainable change into your day so that you have the time and energy you need for the things that matter most.
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