It’s the beginning of a new year: 2018. With that comes a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. While making resolutions might seem a little cliché, knowing where you want to be at the end of 2018 and how to get there can help you live your best life. Everyone needs a fresh start sometimes and that start of the New Year is a perfect opportunity to reset and realign.
1. Reflect on the past. Before you begin thinking about your goals for 2018, it’s important to reflect on the previous year. Did you accomplish everything you hoped to? Why or why not? Be honest with yourself and accept that there might be ways you can improve this year in order to fulfill your plans for 2018.
2. Make goals. Personally, I prefer to make a list of goals and priorities rather than resolutions. Your goals should consist of items with tangible deadlines, such as applying for a new job by the end of March. Save your priorities list for items that are important to you this year, such as going to the gym regularly. Your priorities list can be a mile long, but you might find yourself focusing mostly on your top priorities throughout the year.
3. Have a game plan. Planning your year is where the hard work comes in. I’m a huge advocate for having a planner and writing everything down. While this might not work for everyone, consider the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goals this year. Break up your goals into smaller, more achievable “mini goals” that you can accomplish from month to month. For instance, if you want to land an internship by the end of the year maybe you start researching in February, apply in March and have interviews by the time summer starts.
4. Push yourself. Only you know your true potential and ability to achieve your goals. That being said, sometimes we need to stop making excuses for ourselves and just do the damn thing. Picking Netflix over homework every night is probably not the best way to make the Dean’s List this semester. This all goes back to prioritizing and deciding where to put your time and energy. Be the best version of yourself that you can be. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
5. Forgive yourself. Although pushing yourself is imperative to achieving goals, sometimes life happens and not everything goes exactly according to plan. In these moments of frustration and self-doubt it is so important to forgive yourself. Your goal might be to work out every day, but maybe you skip one day and now you’re kicking yourself for it. While these little things can feel like huge failures sometimes you just need to accept that it happened, pick yourself up and move forward.
6. Just start. Don’t wait for tomorrow or next week to start and just do it. There is no “perfect time” to do anything in life; you just have to jump in. Also, it’s a learning process and that is okay. Throughout the year you might find out that your new meal plan isn’t for you, so you need to regroup and choose another. Your new year might not be off the start that you imagined but you have eleven more months to change it and you can make a lot can happen in that time frame. Think of January as a free-trial month to your best year yet.
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