What is your resolution (if any)?

I have really enjoyed writing this series on New Year’s resolutions and goals – thank you for indulging me! I’d like to share a few parting thoughts and some resolution ideas to close out this series.

Your Goals

The most important thing about setting a resolution or not setting a resolution is that it’s a practice that is FOR YOU! If you want to make a change, great! The New Year can be an inspiring time to make that change. If you feel pretty comfortable with where you are or the idea of adding one more thing to your plate is overwhelming, jettison that excess cargo. But if you do set a resolution, it should be something that you care about, that’s important to you. Don’t let the media, your family, your friends or some article on the internet set your goals for you – think about what you want first and foremost. Because if it’s something you care about, you’ll work on it.

In Sight In Mind

Second, should you decided to choose a word or make some resolutions, I strongly suggest that you keep your word or resolution visible.  Tape it to your mirror, post it on your dashboard in the car, write in on paper and use it as a bookmark, make it your theme or wallpaper on your computer or smart phone.  Remind yourself frequently of your desired outcome to keep motivated through the year.

Sharing is Caring

Next, you are the only one who can accomplish your goals, but you don’t have to do it alone.  Share your resolution with trusted friends or family and ask them to gently remind and support you.  Enlist professionals who have experience and resources in the area of your focus.  If your goals are health related, I’m happy to be of service with suggestions and accountability.

Resilience

And lastly, I encourage you to be gentle with yourself and positive in your self-talk, regardless of the outcome of your goals. I’ve set goals in the past that I marked off my list because I decided or realized that I was never going to accomplish that goal. That’s okay, too. I have set goals and resolutions that it took me a while to realize that I didn’t care about, so they weren’t important to me. That was part of the process. I encourage you to set small goals to experience some successes, but I also encourage you to think about “failure” for goals and resolutions differently. It’s part of the process and it’s actually vital for cultivating resiliency and building towards success.

“Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.”

Mark Twain

Summary of the Series

Here’s a quick reminder of the options I wrote about this week:

1. Word of the Year Set a guiding word for the year instead of making specific resolutions.
2. SMART Goals Set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely Goals.
3. Monthly Mini Resolutions Set small goals each month which may build on one another.
4. Atomic Habits Develop systems to achieve desired outcomes rather than focusing only on the outcomes.
5. No Resolutions Give yourself a break and make no resolutions from a place of kindness and self-love.

These methods are just a few ideas of systems you can apply to thinking about resolutions each year end and goals in general, but these are methods I have personally used and found helpful over the years.

Common “Failed” Resolutions

One of the reasons I commonly hear people reject the whole concept of resolutions is how often they aren’t met. According to a 2012 article by Time magazine, these are the most commonly “failed” resolutions:

• Lose Weight, Get Fit
• Learn something new
• Eat healthier and diet
• Lower debt and save money
• Spend more time with family
• Travel
• Be less stressed
• Volunteer
• Drink less
• Quit Smoking

I was going to write about each of these and why they might not work and how the methods I described might help one have better outcomes with these goals. But for each of them, I could say the same thing – applying SMART Goals, Mini Resolutions and/or Atomic Habits alone or in combination could help someone achieve their goal in this area. And honestly, I wonder how many people set this goal without it really being THEIR goal, something they actually want and plan to work on that year. None of these resolutions feels very specific and each of them could be a part of a mini monthly goal or could be a part of an Atomic Habit system.

In the prior posts in this series, I’ve often used diet change as an example. My favorite way to encourage people to eat healthier is to encourage eating more vegetables – that might be 1 serving per day for the first month or it might be part of a system where you buy and prep vegetables every week. Be less stressed fits best in the Atomic Habits arena, because the outcome is based on the system of behaviors – one might become less stressed by changing their work habits, exercising or meditating (or all three!), but each of those would need to be regularly practiced to result in one being overall less stressed. So I’ll let you think about that a little – if any of the above are your resolution for 2021, think through the methods we’ve covered and how they might help you accomplish your goal.

Resolution Ideas

Now I’m so excited to share some ideas for resolutions you may not have thought about. Some of these are mine, some have come from friends, some have come from the internet. Some of these are also nonspecific, some are silly, some require a certain amount of privilege to accomplish, but all are here for your consideration and enjoyment. I wish you peace and plenty in 2021 and beyond. Happy New Year!