Why I don’t make New Years resolutions 20th December 2016

Christmas week…the week that all good intentions go out the window with regards eating, drinking and pretty much everything in between.

And next week of course.. The week of self-loathing, regret and the dreaded New Years Resolutions…

I hate the term New Years resolution….in my opinion it has more negative connotations than positive….with people throwing out cigarette boxes with no real plan in place, going to the gym 7 times a week (having never gone before) and banishing the house of anything in a packet.

All this pressure inevitably leads to failure which makes us feel so much worse about ourselves meaning you end up at the tail end of January broke (payday please!), miserable and utterly dejected.

Why don’t you save yourself the bother this year?

December and January are a great time to reflect on the past year and plan for the future but its not the only time goal setting can be done. Last year I set myself some personal goals. To help me do this I came up with a vision of how I wanted my life to be.

From this I came up with some goals. I didn’t assign them a particular time limit I simply came up with the goals. Then every month I assigned a goal/goals to a month depending on what else was going on…this way it gave me the flexibility to be able to consider everything that was going on in my life rather than setting myself a huge goal, failing miserably and feeling bad about myself.

This worked really well and its what I plan to do this year aswell. This is of course an iterative process so once you start you don’t need to wait until the New Year to adjust your goals or to add new ones. Or to admit that a goal that you once had isn’t working for you anymore.

So when looking at your New Years Resolutions this year ask yourself the following questions…

1. What way do I want my life to look like this time next year?
2. What do I need to do in order to achieve that vision? What are my specific goals?
3. And then assign them a month/week/time of the year…this doesnt need to be done straightaway
4. Remember to include goals for all areas of your life not just one…career, relationships, exercise/movement, nutrition etc. A full life is a balanced life.
5. And remember to celebrate your successes! Big or small…Celebrate your achievements.

You might be wondering what goals I achieved in 2016? Well some of the goals I achieved included leaving my job and becoming self-employed, completing a triathlon, swimming lessons, a girly holiday and volunteering for the DSCPA.

2017 goal setting will be commencing very shortly!

What do you think? How do you set goals/new years resolutions? We love to hear from you!