No More New Year's Resolutions by Tameeka Leon

No More New Year's Resolutions

It’s a new year and you have set your new year’s resolutions. You’re going to lose weight, eat healthier, spend more time with friends, travel more, and stop taking shit. Sound familiar? I think most people have pretty similar resolutions.

 My thoughts on resolutions? I’m sure can guess by the title of this post. I’m also sure many don’t agree with me but I’m just going to say it: I hate new year’s resolutions. Don’t get me wrong, I love goals. I love ambition and everyone’s wish to be better. What I hate is that people procrastinate starting until the new year.  Then they set these really ambitious goals and start the year off strong, only to fall off in a couple months. The goals are not realistic, nor are they entirely thought through and meaningful. Resulting in the resolutions falling into the extremely large bucket of all the resolutions that are never accomplished. If you know that nobody really accomplishes their new year’s resolutions, there is no obligation to stick to it because nobody else does. Granted, this is my opinion and you are more than welcome to disagree with me. If you are one of those rare people who make a resolution and stick to it every year, I applaud you. You are truly among an elite crowd. For most, that is not the case.

 January is honey moon phase of the resolution. The sacrifice doesn’t seem so bad because you are determined, you are motivated, and you’re going to make it happen this time. Then life really kicks in and you have a day or two where you have to skip the gym and grab a quick bite from the drive thru. Did you account for that, those days where life doesn’t go as planned? That’s when it starts. “I already messed up this week, I’ll just start back next week”

“I’m broke this week, I’ll buy healthy groceries with my next paycheck”

“I’m too busy, I’ll call her next week to have brunch”

 How do you prevent this from happening? How do you keep going when the motivation is gone?

 I am a huge proponent of starting any time of the year, any day of the week. What does success look like to you? Visualize the final result. Choose your milestones (make this an event, not a date) and how you will celebrate each one. What excuses are you likely to make when it gets difficult to keep making those sacrifices? Write down your excuses, now write down your reasons for staying the course. Think of your excuses as risks. Is there anything you can do to mitigate the risks before they become reality? If the risks are realized, what next? Be sure to schedule time to review your goals and milestones. Seeing and celebrating the progress is just as important as, or maybe even more important than, achieving the final result. Life happens, but so does success. And success is a result of planning and dedication.

 Throughout this blog post I hope I have inspired you to really think through your goals. There were several things I mentioned you should write down, and I hope you will write them down and review them regularly. Regularly reviewing your goals will help you see your progress, which helps to keep you motivated. Later this week I will provide a link to a PDF that will help you get started on achieving your goals. You can download the page and keep it on your computer or you can print it out. Whichever works best for you.

For now, take a few minutes to watch this video to get you in the goal setting mindset: https://youtu.be/YRaSAvw-RhQ

 Time to get started on your future!

 

 

 

1 comment

  • Totally agree! I came up with some goals and intentions for the year as well. I have a PDF that I keep in multiple places to help remind me and keep me accountable.

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    Brittany

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