How To Stick To Your New Year’s Resolutions

First, we are human! Take a deep breath and realize that we are NOT perfect. Sticking to goals is HARD.

Do you expect others to be perfect? Hopefully that’s a big fat NO! And, if you said no, you should not expect yourself to be perfect either.

Scroll to the bottom for the FREEBIE Goal Tracker!

Here are my 5 tips on how to succeed!

Here’s a pretty picture to make you feel happy and motivated. This was one of my goals. To shoot at the Grand Canyon looking landscape called Dead Horse Point in Southern Utah. I did that in April 2019 and it was a dream.

1. Set realistic & measurable goals.

BRAIN DUMP ACTIVITY:

What are your dreams?

What are the things you’ve always wanted to accomplish but never had?

If money and time weren’t an issue, what would you do with your day, your months, your year?

Don’t limit yourself. Don’t give excuses right now of how your hopes & dreams will never become a reality.

Write ALL of these ideas down on a brain dump sheet – don’t tell yourself no to anything! (If you don’t know what that is check out Emily Ley’s FREE printables for Brain Dumps. They’re amazing!)

Then, look over your brain dump sheet. You might look at it now (coming back to reality) and start to think “This list is impossible!”.

Now you can figure out what things are actually feasible this year. Circle everything (YES EVERYTHING) you think you’d really enjoy doing. The things that make you really excited!

Cross out anything that is pretty much impossible (yeah, I want to go to outerspace, but is that what I really want to accomplish this year?

Can I realistically do that this year?

For me that’s a no. It’d be freakin’ awesome but I’d rather accomplish other things more important to me.

But if outer space was your #1 dream, do not cross that bad boy off your brain dump.

The purpose of this activity is to make your dreams a reality.) Don’t be too hard on yourself. You still want to keep things circled that will push you to your potential.

Go through your circled items and pick the top 20 items you’d like to accomplish this year.

Write them down on another piece of paper.

Categorize the goals.

I make goals for many categories, a few of them being: spiritual, relationship, business, financial, physical, etc. After the goals are categorized, prioritize each.

How important are each of these goals to you?

What item would you like to complete first if you could only choose one goal to accomplish? Put a 1 next to that goal.

Continue prioritizing until you’ve completed all 20 tasks in each category (I say 20, but this is an arbitrary number. Your list should have the amount you feel comfortable with. That may contain 10 items or 30 items.)

Doing this will help make the next steps easier. Look at everything you want to accomplish this year.

Can you measure these?

Can you quantify them? (I ask these questions so at the end of the year you can say “I blogged 5x/month for the entire year and increased my site visits or inquiries by 85%!” or “I went on a date with my husband every week this year!”

Saying those things gives me chills (mostly because those are some of my goals for 2019!). Now we’ll figure out how to make this actually happen!

2. Add a timeframe!

Note – some people are TOTALLY NOT INTO THIS. I am because it works for me. It may not be the best for you to follow a time limit. If you find you’ve failed in the past to meet personal deadlines, then SKIP THIS. Or read it and see what you can benefit from this section!

Even when I need to complete a task, I like to set a time limit on completing the task. Being competitive in nature myself, I love follow a time limit to tell myself “I can complete this task in ___ minutes” or “I have four months to finish this goal.”

Then, I put away all distractions and get to the task! Write down when you’d like to have each of the 20 goals done by. Write down how long you’d like to work on them (one month, one quarter, daily, monthly, etc.)

I set a timeframe and set daily calendar reminders to make sure my goals slowly, yet surely, get done.

This concept reminds me of Parkinson’s Law. This says that tasks will expand to the time allotted. If you have no time limit on your tasks you will be working on them for ages! So set a timeframe to hold yourself accountable!

*Note: some tasks (for me) are impossible to keep with a timeframe because I’m stubborn or have bad habits (whoops I’m human!).

For example, it’s really hard for me to set a goal to read a certain amount of books every year. I just can’t stick to it! I hardly ever complete a book when I’m put to the challenge of finishing it in a certain timeframe. I found that I read the most when I don’t put a timeframe on myself.

I choose books I enjoy and that I’m in the mood for.

In January I might say I want to read all business related books, but come May I may be feeling like self-help or fantasy. I don’t want to impede myself in that way.

Hence, take note of your own triggers for when you do or don’t accomplish a goal when there’s a time attached to it. Some goals you set for yourself may not work with a time frame.

This is how happy I am about setting goals.

3. Put your goals in a place you will see every day.

Write or type out your goals onto a cute paper that will motivate you. Organize it into categories like you did after your brain dump. Make sure the goal sheet is something that will be fun to look at everyday.

This location for me is on my fridge.

I print out my goals on a HUGE 11×17 paper and I post it like this: [insert image] Everytime I pass by my fridge (every morning and multiple times a night) I am reminded of my goals.

Again, make them look cute! Maybe you can use one of Emily Ley’s printables for this or head to my Pinterest Board for inspiration.

I’ve also created a goal sheet I use here.

And this is all fo’ FREE! Rachel Hollis advises to write down your goals as if you’ve already accomplished them. Then you can look at your goals every day and think “I have $1000 saved in my bank account.”

Even if you don’t have that yet, it will remind you of how you’ll feel once it is accomplished.

4. Pace yourself.

Work on your goals a little at a time. To not overwhelm myself though, I need to make sure I work on the goals a little at a time.

When I look at all of my goals, I get overwhelmed.

My anxiety builds.

But, when I break the goals down they are chewable. I set a good, manageable pace for myself.

I set check ups for myself each month to see my progress and adjust accordingly (life happens – take that into account. Sometimes things get out of whack and your life gets thrown into a rollercoaster but you can pivot as needed!). This sets me up for success!

5. Put the goals in a calendar.

Put it in your phone.

Write it on the calendar on the fridge.

Add it to your Trelloboard.

Schedule it all out. Schedule out everything to the T – with wiggle room. So that means, set up the times you will work on your goals everyday. Make sure every goal has a time set aside to work on it. The wiggle room means you should give yourself space and be realistic about how much time you can allot to each goal each day (make sure your schedule can breathe so you have time to think and live life still).

One girl boss who was on the Jenna Kutcher podcast and is the founder of Love Everywhere talked about how she started her business by working on it a few minutes everyday and then eventually to 90 minutes a day. What a boss! Her episode is here.

Whatever will help you, do that. Now it’s up to you! Look at your goals daily. Work on them daily. Check up on yourself monthly.

Now Get It Done, Girl!

(or boy – but girl flows better)