It’s a common question: How can I set a New Year’s resolution up for success? The secret is more simplistic than you imagine – view it correctly and enact it wisely.
How You View Your Resolution Is Crucial
Another year in the books for posterity, which makes a lot of us become introspective. We examine the contents of the previous year – our successes, missteps, achievements, and shortcomings. Was your year spent wisely? Did your heart’s desires get fulfilled? Were you even on the right life path?
These aren’t questions that just define the past; they’re also questions we use to help shape our future. It becomes clear if you lived the year for you or for others and if you were striving to be who others expected you to be or who you truly wanted to be. It’s powerful knowledge. and it’s a massive motivator toward positive change in your life if you use the info wisely.
Many call upon this retrospect in making a New Year resolution to create change. In the evaluation, we can set new personal and professional goals to better help us achieve what we, not others, really want out of life. It’s a monumental step in becoming our own best version of ourself possible.
Of course, this means you’ll need to throw out the expectations others have placed upon you. Otherwise, your resolution is destined to just become yet another element in next year’s resolution. Why? You’re looking at a resolution, a change, to further move away from your best life to live someone else’s version of it.
The key here is to view your resolution through your own lens. Define your own vision so that you can set the necessary goals to fulfill it.
Let’s look at some tips to help ensure your resolution is all about you and that you can face it with courage, not dread.
Setting Your New Year Resolution Up Wisely
Before we start, ask yourself a question that will be your defining moment in starting this journey. The answer will help you understand why so many resolutions never get fulfilled.
Are you wishing to do and be better, or do you feel an innate and intrinsic need to do and be better?
The answer matters a great deal. Wishes are whimsical dreams that are content to stay part of fiction. Meanwhile, a need will demand nothing less than actionable goals to fulfill it. With that questioned answered, here are some tips to help you meet those goals within your resolution.
1. Don’t Go Overboard
Change is hard, especially if it’s truly meaningful. So, keep your resolutions to one or two to help bolster your likelihood of success. Break your resolution into small, achievable measures of success. With each tiny win, you’ll be more motivated to keep working toward the big win.
2. Visualize Success
This concept originated in athletics, and it’s been utilized by some of the most powerful and successful business people in history. Why? How can you achieve something if you can’t actually picture yourself doing so? What does life look like once each goal within your resolution has been checked off and you’re on the other side of the finish line? This isn’t about dreaming of the what ifs. It’s about knowing what will be if you continue acting.
3. Keep Goals Front And Center
In a world where temptation surrounds us with almost any resolution, it’s vital to give your goals equal opportunity to influence you. Post visual cues around your environment to help you prioritize long-term goals against the ease of instant gratification. Mental maps, such as a systematic picture collage or a reward board for goals, are a great idea. You should also have a flow sheet for your resolution and its goals, which should include a timeframe and actionable steps, posted on the fridge or bathroom mirror so that it’s the first and last thing you see each day.
4. Journal And Discuss Your Journey
Writing out your goals is just the first step in documenting your resolution, but leaving it close-ended to a list means that you stifle growth and redirection.
Keeping a journal will help you identify those little hinderances and helpers that often go unnoticed as we are busy living life. You use this info to adjust your game plan. Consistent journaling may also reveal your deepest thoughts as they begin to pour out on paper, which is a clever way to determine if your actions are truly aligned with your own dreams or just a product of someone else’s expectations of you. If “I” isn’t the center of your writings, then you should look deeper into the rationale behind the thought.
You’ll also want to articulate your resolution contents out loud. Don’t be afraid to give yourself a pep talk or debate the pros and cons of a move with yourself. Of course, talking to others as a soundboard for your thoughts can also be helpful. You may learn something about yourself or correct some bit of misinformation that you didn’t even know existed. Just be careful that you take the opinions and advice of others as assistive, not a replacement.
Ready, Set, Go
In closing, by remembering that resolutions should be completely centered around you, not others, and applying the above four tips to your resolution, you’ve already set yourself up for success. Watch as your confidence, self-worth, and happiness all rise with each milestone you achieve. Relish in the fact that you’re not just dreaming about who you could be, but you’re actually on a tangible path to being who you need to be to be your best self for yourself.
That’s a lot of “you,” but the fact is that your name is the only one that’s on your birth certificate and will be on your tombstone. It’s your life to live, and you can use resolutions as an opportunity to ensure your doing it your way.
