7 Tips for Making New Year's Resolutions You WILL Accomplish and How to Correctly Set Goals
We get it, 2020 was a disappointment, a shit-show, blah blah... Let's shed it entirely and LEAP into 2021 with brand-new energy, goals, and resolutions that will catapult our success! After all, we deserve it, don't we?
And since this has been such an unprecedented time, why would you make the same old resolutions, the way you've done every other year? Screw that! Let's do this differently, let's GET RESULTS in 2021 like we've NEVER gotten before.
The start of the New Year is a powerful time to create new habits, set new intentions, and make goals that will ensure your long-term success.
We've all made New Year’s Resolutions in the past, but how many of those did you accomplish? Did you start each new year with a sense of dread, writing a list of promises to yourself that you knew you had no intention of keeping?
Let's stop that destructive cycle, shall we? Let's set goals that we can not only MEET but EXCEED. When we accomplish these goals, it builds our trust in ourselves and our confidence, which ultimately creates the lasting change we desire.
I’m a firm believer in making goals that you can ABSOLUTELY commit to, something you KNOW you can complete without killing yourself. Unrealistic goals are the fastest way to become demotivated and fall into the trap of beating yourself up, which is basically the worst thing you can do!
Most people make the mistake of setting goals they know they'll never achieve, or ones they have no idea how to achieve. When you do this year after year, and each time fall short, you start to feel pretty shitty right? When we begin beating ourselves up, it makes our chances of success that much less, and the road to accomplishment that much harder.
STOP THE CYCLE! It's not working.
That's not to say you should expect little of yourself, absolutely not. You should want to make big changes and set the bar high, but there is a way to do this effectively, rather than setting yourself up for another failure.
I believe that ANYONE (yes, YOU) can achieve ANY GOAL regardless of how “insane” it may seem IF you do it correctly.
7 Tips for Making New Year's Resolutions You WILL Accomplish
HOW TO SET GOALS YOU WILL ACHIEVE
1. DECIDE you are ready to make a change. The first step to any change is a CONCRETE DECISION. You must DECIDE you want to change MORE than you want to stay the same. If you are apathetic about how things are right now, no goal will ever motivate you to change. You must be DONE with how things are right now, over it! Fed up! If you WANT the change more than the apathy, nothing will stand in your way.
2. Clearly define the outcome you want. If you don't know what the desired end result is, how can you achieve it? What are you working towards? Why does "losing 20lbs" matter to you? What will change about your life when you do? What will you be able to do then that you can't do now? How bad do you want to do that new thing? How bad do you want to feel the way you imagine it will feel when you do the new thing? Identify all of that. It's not about the 20lbs people, it's about how you want your life to change how you want to feel, and what you'll be able to do. This is true of ANY goal (not just health ones). By defining all these various outcomes you've also just set several benchmarks for yourself that you can achieve at any point in the year which will continue to encourage your success.
3. START SMALL. Break your larger "resolution", or year goal, into a DAILY, ACHIEVABLE action-based goal.
For example: If your resolution is to "get fit," or lose 20lbs. Your DAILY action would be to move your body for at least 20 minutes a day. This is something you can commit to and excel at. There will be days when you get in an hour workout or more, great! Those are the days when you exceed your goal, build your confidence, and get one step closer to your ultimate health goal for the year. On days when you "only" get in your 20 minutes as a walk with the dog, you are still on track and keeping your promise, thus accomplishing your short and long-term goals. It's the consistency of the smaller achievable actions that make lasting and lifelong change.
4. Fantasize about what it will be like to LIVE the outcome of your goals and benchmarks. What will it feel like? What will you do to celebrate? Who will you share the joy of this accomplishment with? Daydreaming about the end results in as vivid detail as you can, as often as you can.
5. Use mottos to change your thinking. A huge part of success (in any form) is to BELIEVE that you are capable of making it happen. But when you start out on Jan 1st, you won't believe that yet! You need to convince yourself of it first. The best way to build a new belief is to tell yourself all day every day; that it is possible, it is happening, that you deserve it, that you can do it, and that you are proud of yourself for all your efforts so far, that you are one step closer, that victory is YOURS, that you are capable, that you are worthy, that you've got this!!! Learn more about mottos HERE
6. Be RELENTLESS. Understand that there is no going back. And if there is NO going back to your old ways, your old habits, the old you… then there is ONLY moving forward. This means you complete your daily goal even on days when you don’t want to. BUT, if you fall off (and let’s be honest, you will at some point), give yourself grace for the “pause” and get right back at it the next day. Always put a time limit on your “pause” never more than 3 days “off.” Understand that a “pause” is NOT a break, or an “it’s over, so why bother.” You aren’t starting over; you’re simply jumping back into the game.
7. Don’t overextend yourself. Do NOT set goals you know you can’t or won’t accomplish. Instead, think about that massive goal, and instead of writing it, write a mid-size goal that would need to be accomplished before the big goal could ever be realized.
Example: If you want to write a book that gets published, don’t make your New Year’s resolution or goal for the year “get my book published.” That is something that would in all likelihood take more than a year anyway. Instead write: “Write 10 chapters of my book.” This way if you write more, or finish it, you’ve exceeded your goal and can make the next year's goal to get an agent and get it published.
ALWAYS SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS. This is the golden rule. It will prevent discouragement; self-loathing and negative self-talk, and it will encourage and motivate you to keep going until you’ve reached your goal.
What are your goals?
Can you make a daily goal that is something you’re willing to commit to now?
Then all you have to do is show up. Just do it. Do it tomorrow. Then the next day… Like they say in AA… one day at a time.
Check out my chapter on how to set effective goals in my new book All the Things I Wish I Knew, plus 80 other lessons and tips on how to create your dream life.
Ready to take your life, career, goals and yourself to the next level? Check out my life coaching options or take my online life coaching courses to get the results you DESERVE!
Sarah Centrella is a #1 best-selling author of several self-help books, a motivational keynote speaker, master life coach, Founder of VIVIAMO and podcast host.