How to Set New Year’s Goals and Stick to Them

With a new year upon us, many of us are in the phase of setting goals. It’s a tradition that some of us cherish and others dread. If you’re someone who likes to set new resolutions each year, then you’ll want to consider some techniques to help you accomplish those resolutions in a happy, healthy manner!

Follow these tips to make sure that your New Year’s goals become a reality; you’ll look back in 12 months and smile at the things you’ve achieved.

Set Realistic Goals

You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s worth repeating: if you set unrealistic goals, then it’s unrealistic for you to expect yourself to accomplish them! Setting realistic goals means reflecting on your resources, time, and other life factors to ensure that the expectations you set for yourself can truly be met.

Setting goals in journal

The joy you’ll feel when meeting a realistic goal will propel you forward to the next stage of that goal! But, setting unrealistic goals can set you up for feelings of negativity when you look back and see that you have not met them. That’s certainly not the way we want to feel when making progress towards our goals, even if that progress is slower than you anticipated!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Goals journal with time clock

On that note, one of the ways to set realistic goals is to give yourself plenty of time to achieve them. Racing towards an end goal could lead to exhaustion early on. Instead, making small steps towards that goal every day will help you sustain your progress and eventually reach the goal that you might have given up on otherwise.

The key is sustainability and consistency. For example, if your goal is to run a half marathon before the end of the year, don’t force yourself to start running every single day. You’ll literally exhaust your body, leading to injuries and, potentially, reduced motivation. Moving more slowly towards attainable, incremental goals will allow you to celebrate your progress along the way, thus motivating you to keep moving forward.

Visualize Your Goals and Progress

Vision board for goals

Some people find more motivation to keep working towards their goals when they can actually visualize them. Consider creating a vision board or bullet journal with inspirational sentiments and pictures that make you think of your end goals. Seeing your goals will keep them top of mind and may excite you to keep working towards them.

Just as important as visualizing your goals is celebrating your progress. Each step you take to get closer to a goal is something to be proud of! Recording your progress in a visual manner may help you to keep your chin up when things get hard.

Reflect and Adjust

Consider keeping a journal of the steps you’ve taken when working on your goals. Reflect on what’s worked and what hasn’t. Pay close attention to how the process makes you feel, and write it down. These things are important as you work on your slow but steady journey towards your goals.

Journaling goals

Part of reflecting involves adjusting your goals. If you’re finding that the things you’re doing to reach your goals are not working or are making you unhappy, then those things are not worth doing. If the progress you’re making is not actually improving your life or providing satisfaction, then it is time to re-evaluate.

You must remember that your goals are your own, and they are dictated by you alone. They are not set in stone, but are fully flexible! Life changes, and minds change, and you get to decide which goals to adjust and in which ways to make sure you are truly happy and healthy.

Be Kind to Yourself!

Setting healthy goals

This, perhaps, is the most important key to reaching your goals. It plays into all of the tips above.

When setting a goal, be kind to yourself. Is the goal you’re setting driven from a place of self-love, or is it driven from a place of dissatisfaction with yourself? Setting a goal that stems from negativity could lead you to get burned out and feel unhappy along your path.

Hiking with friends

The perfect example is one of the most common goals people set each year: losing weight. Why might one want to achieve this goal? Is it because they do not like their current self? If so, then they may want to consider reframing this goal.

In this example, you could reframe the goal from losing weight to learning new, healthy recipes, or picking up a fun, active hobby like hiking or yoga with friends. These things will promote happiness and could help you reach the end goal through positive means.

Be kind to yourself when tracking progress. Instead of writing down numbers, such as weight lost or days at the gym, write down how you’re feeling each week. Are you feeling stronger? More energetic? More confident? That kind of progress is much more important!

Self love

When reflecting on your goals, be kind to yourself. If you’re not making progress as quickly as you expected, that’s ok! Being hard on yourself won’t help you get there any quicker – instead, it could kill your motivation to do so. Remember that we’re always doing the best we can, and even the slightest bit of progress is something to celebrate.

Happy New Year from the EarFleek Crew

Happy New Year 2021

One of my goals this year is to read more. What are your goals? Share them with us on social media so we can ring in the New Year together.  Oh, and if your goal this year is to grow your earring collection, then you’re in the right spot! Save 50% on your first month’s subscription to our monthly subscription box when you get started here.

Written by Megan
Written by Megan

Megan is a writer and digital marketer living in the Pacific Northwest who subsists mostly on coffee. As a lover of travel, cat fostering, and cocktail making, she has a hard time deciding how to spend her free time (and usually just ends up watching Netflix).

 

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