This year has been a whirlwind of madness and with the holiday season upon us, it’s time to follow those traditions we know and love.
Resolutions are one of those beloved traditions. It’s an easy enough thing to do: you think of a list and immediately turn to social media to announce your goals to the world. You follow them for a week, maybe two or even a month if you’re the committed type. But then, mid-January, when your muscles are sore and you’re craving cake, it’s like that list you made never existed in the first place.
I used to be this person and I’d get so frustrated with myself for not being able to keep the promises that I made to myself on New Year’s Day. I would wonder why I couldn’t be the person I wanted to be and why this whole resolution thing wasn’t working for me.
One day, I looked at the list of goals I had set. The first was to get fit, which is probably at the top of most people’s list in some form. I also wanted to improve my grades, relationships and take more time for myself.
This list was a good start but I realized that in order to achieve them, I would need a plan. That’s when I learned about goal setting and my view on resolutions completely changed.
Goal setting isn’t just making a list and leaving it on the fridge. Goal setting is learning how to make realistic, attainable goals for yourself that have a start and finish. It’s about forgiving yourself when you fall off the bandwagon and knowing it’s okay to eat that cake and then recommit.
Your goals need to be backed by a plan and you need to consistently do them until they become part of your routine. Taking your big goals and breaking them down into a plan is the only way to make your resolutions work for you.
So this year, when you sit down and write your list, think about more than just the overall goal and you’ll be well on your way to an amazing 2018.
Don’t get caught up in the holiday haze and get mad at yourself when you can’t magically change everything overnight. You can do this.
Click here to see more of Abbey’s work.