Each December, I make two of the most important lists of the entire year. The first, of course, is my Christmas list. This list always gets left behind in the last month of the year. The second usually faces the same unfortunate fate. Sometime after January 1, when the snow melts in the spring, this list gets completely neglected. This list, as you have likely already figured out, is my New Year’s resolution list. The cycle of diligently coming up with my most important goals for the new year and ditching them by springtime seems to be a problem that many people struggle with. As the semester comes to a close, and we all reflect on the last year, here is my advice on how to set meaningful goals, and actually achieve them.
What’s Important?
The new year marks the opportunity to make the changes to your life that you’ve been waiting to start working toward. After all, why not become a new you in the new year? When visualizing and documenting our goals for the new year, it’s easy to be overzealous and want to set every goal you can think of. We see January 1 as a date in the future that we have time to prepare for, so we overcommit ourselves to dedicating our time to a million different goals. The truth is that setting too many goals means you’ll achieve none of them. There are already too few hours in the day to do everything you want, so save yourself the stress and don’t even put yourself in the position to spend too much time working on too many goals. You don’t want to burn yourself out or have to sacrifice the things you already love about your life.
What does all of this mean? You need to prioritize your goals. Set just a few specific goals before the new year. This could be one massive goal, like starting or changing your career, or it could be three smaller goals, like reading a book every month, journaling for five minutes every day and trying out a new hobby. As long as you reflect on how much time you are actually willing to spend working toward your goals, you’ll be able to set resolutions of the appropriate magnitude.
Have a Plan of Action
Now that you have an idea of which particular resolutions you want to achieve in 2024, you have to figure out your game plan. When are you going to spend time working toward this goal? What steps do you need to take to be successful? What are your biggest obstacles going to be? Don’t be afraid to be brutally honest with yourself. If our resolutions were easy to achieve, we would have already accomplished them by now. Likely, your strategy for achieving your resolutions will change along the way. Not only is this okay, but it’s also to be expected. As we reach our goals, we are fundamentally changed, which means our dedication, needs and challenges will all be different from when we started.
This also isn’t to say you need to have every hour of your day organized in a way that allows you to concentrate only on your resolutions. Keep room for relationships and spontaneity in your life. You don’t want to lose focus on what is currently important in your life. Change is beautiful and necessary, but only if it is not your only focus. Achieving the goals you set on your New Year’s resolutions list is extremely rewarding, so plan to spend time working toward them, but also plan to enjoy what you already have.
Practice Gratitude
Gratitude is a great daily practice, though it is not always easy when you have a change-oriented mindset. Finding a way to incorporate gratitude into your life allows you to appreciate what you already have and attracts positivity into your life. When you surround yourself with positivity by way of gratitude, you are able to approach everything with more vigor and passion, especially your goals. It also makes it easier to overcome any hurdles you may face while working towards your New Year’s resolutions.
Patience, Patience and More Patience
Achieving goals and observing real, lasting change takes time. Depending on the extremity of each of your New Year’s resolutions, you may see small and gradual progress over the course of a few days, or you may have to wait a few months. If this goal is really a priority for you, it will be worth the wait, and overall, you’ll be able to maintain motivation, even if it does waver at times. You must be patient with your progress and patient with yourself if you struggle to stick to your plan. We are all human and make mistakes, so understand this about bettering yourself. If you lose track of your goals, do your best to get back on track and learn to forgive yourself.
Don’t Be Afraid to start now
At the end of the day, the new year is just a day that is convenient to mark as a new start. On the other hand, it’s equally as convenient to put off the goals you’ve been dreaming up all year until this “new start.” If a goal is really important to you and you have the motivation already — start now! Just because you start early doesn’t mean this goal can’t still be a New Year’s resolution that you bring into 2024. Use the motivation that you have as an opportunity to get a head start on conquering the new year. Whether it’s December 5, January 1 or February 3, start as soon as you are ready. The longer we put off our goals, the less likely it is that we will ever achieve them. Life is short enough as it is, so don’t waste time dreaming of what you could have; start working for it.
Take the time to prioritize your New Year’s resolutions and get to work as soon as possible. With careful consideration and planning, 2024 can be your most successful year yet.