How To Create Achievable New Year Goals.

Every new year brings with it a hyped need for change, ambition and purpose. The term’ new year resolution’ is often thrown around to jumpstart the process. While the intention is noble, many people struggle with keeping their New Year’s Resolutions.

By the third month of the year, most people usually have fallen off the wagon. The newly acquired sense of identity and good habits quickly dwindle into oblivion, and they soon revert to old ways and routines. Life moves forward, seasons change, and before long, you’re staring at another new year with a backlog of new year resolutions.  

If you are stuck in the cycle of setting new intentions for the year and not following through, this article is for you. Here is a guide on how to create achievable New Year goals that you can stick to throughout the year.

1. Reflect On the Past Year.

To make real and sustainable change in your life, you first have to admit that there is a need for transformation. That there is an aspect of your life that is headed in the wrong trajectory, and this needs introspection.

The new year is a time for evaluation and analysis. Before setting new year goals, take time to review the previous year or years. When you take a good look at your past, you will identify what worked well and what didn’t. You may also notice a pattern. Maybe, year after year, you start well, full of drive, but come June, that drive ends, and you struggle to pick up momentum for the rest of the year.

Also, our lives are made up of multiple facets, each coming together to make them beautiful and fulfilling. Therefore, as you reflect, take a hard look at your health, finances, purpose, spirituality, and community. You will need ambitions and goals in each category, but first, take a holistic view of your life to avoid repeating past mistakes.

2. Create SMART Goals.

The road map to achieving your goals this year is by making them SMART.

Specific.

Many people fail to achieve their goals because they set vague ones. For example, if you want to improve your health, you set a goal of losing weight and leave it at that. Goals like ‘lose weight, save money or make more money’ are vague and hard to measure, hence unattainable.

To achieve success in all areas of your life, you need to be vividly specific about your objectives/goals. Make them concrete. Your goals should show what you want to accomplish and how to go about it.

 For a fitness resolution, a specific goal would be ‘To exercise for 40 minutes, three times a week.’ A specific financial goal would be ‘To save 2000 every month into a fixed bank account.’ Specific goals provide clarity and make it easier to plan into actionable steps.

Measurable.

Quantifying your goals allows you to track your progress and stay motivated. Therefore, set your resolutions in a manner that gives you absolute control, so their attainability or lack thereof squarely falls on you.

Instead of ‘read more’, aim for ‘read one book a month’ or instead of ‘eat healthier’, commit to ‘eat a serving of vegetable with every meal.’ These goals are not only specific but have a measurable action plan that you can track. If maintained, by the end of the year, you will have read 12 books, and if you continue to eat a vegetable serving with your meals, you will be healthier.

Achievable.

While it’s awesome to aim high, your goals should be grounded in reality. Consider your current lifestyle, commitment, and resources. Setting overly ambitious goals is a recipe for failure, and it can also lead to frustration and burnout.

To accomplish anything, big or small, you need to take the first step first. Just start. Start with smaller and manageable steps to build momentum and confidence. With time, gradually increase your scope as you grow.

Relevant.

You don’t have to do everything under the sun. Therefore, when setting or creating your goals, you need to be alarmingly clear on why you are setting them. You also need to evaluate its relevance in your life at the moment.

Perhaps you have a goal of leisurely touring Africa in 90 days. That is a good goal, specific, measurable, and achievable. However, you have just given birth, and now your baby takes prominence in your life. Maybe you have just enrolled for your higher diploma or master’s. Leisurely touring Africa will have to take a back seat unless it is in your scope of study. You get the point.

Time Bound.

Deadline creates a sense of urgency and helps you stay focused. Break larger goals into smaller milestones with specific timelines. For example, learn to play three songs on a piano by April or write 1000 articles by the end of quarter 1.

The sense of urgency will motivate you to keep going because when the timeline elapses, you will have to evaluate the progress.

3. Look At Your Goals Every Day.

Renowned Rapid Transformation Therapist Marrisa Peers, author of several best-selling books, bases her work on the simple fact that the mind learns through repetition. With that, she has amassed incredible success and wealth. Therefore, if you wake up every day and look at your goals and vision board, your mind subconsciously starts to calibrate how to achieve them.

Famous and successful athletes visualise their game plan and win each time. Visualisation is scientifically proven to impact the mind and move the needle forward. Unfortunately, most of us write our goals on our notepads, close the book, and forget about them until the following year.

Write your goals on sticky notes and post them all over the house. In the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and even on the balcony, so that as you sip your tea, watching the sunset, your goals are also staring down at you, wondering when you will achieve them!

4. Have An Accountability Partner.

There is a Burkina Faso saying that states, “Alone a youth walks fast, with an elder slow, but together they go far.” If you want to achieve all your goals this year, find an accountability partner. This should be someone you trust and who shares your values.

An accountability partner is a person who is equally excited to see you achieve your goals. Someone who can question your habits and help you evaluate your progress. For me, an accountability partner is crucial in building consistency and making the journey not only achievable but also fun.

Motivation is fleeting; hence, you need strategies to keep the momentum going. An accountability partner comes in handy, especially on days when you are struggling to show up.

For instance, there are days I work out because of my accountability partner. I didn’t feel like it, nor did I want to, but she showed up and dragged me along! On other days, she calls me with so much energy and excitement that I have no choice but to go. This way, all year long, I am able to sustain my goal of working out four times a week.♥