It’s that time of year again where everyone wants to know what your New Year’s resolutions are, and you likely hear that same question over and over all throughout January. This can feel overwhelming, make us feel self-conscious and under-accomplished, and be paralyzing. Even if you loosely set goals for this past year, you likely didn’t get to do everything you imagined for yourself. Or, hey, maybe you’re that unicorn of a woman that checked off every single dang box and are what we’ve strived our whole lives to be! If so, good for you, mama! For the rest of us, here are 5 ways you can do New Year’s resolutions in a way that works for YOU.
- Make a list. Check it twice. Oh, wait – that’s Santa’s job. Check it as many times as you want after you create that list, but jot down all the things you see making you happy this coming year. It doesn’t all have to be nice; you can be a little naughty, too. 😉 Make your list attainable, though. Want to lose 20 pounds? Start with just saying you’ll take a short walk every night. Want to cut refined sugar completely out of your diet? Start with replacing one sweet treat with a fresh piece of fruit each day. Want to be a better mom/wife/partner? Start with setting aside 10 minutes of self-care each day and accepting help from other when it’s offered. You can dream big for yourself, but focus each day on the tiny changes. You’ll be amazed how much can slowly evolve after a year when you don’t obsess over how far you have to go until you accomplish those goals you’ve set for yourself.
- Make it a family affair. Gather all the kids around with you and reflect on what you’re all proud of from this year and what you each think you could do better. Celebrate all you achieved, all the fun you had, and all the great memories you created together. Then, create goals as a family for what you want to accomplish together in the new year and the new memories you want to make. Assign accountability to each member of the fam – and remember to keep it fun!
- Keep it loose. Checklists and grand plans don’t work for you? Scrap all that! Just put it out into the universe that you want to be healthier, travel more, and have a happier family, etc. Then, keep those good thoughts with you as you make each decision, big and small, throughout the new year.
- Make it visual. Draw stairs or a ladder and then put your big goals on top. Begin breaking down those goals into tinier resolutions as you work your way down the stairs or rungs. Say you want to take that big family vacation you’ve always dreamed of but never made happen. What are some of those components that will make it happen? Setting aside PTO at work, tallying up how much food/accommodations/travel will cost plus incidentals, determining how much you need to save every week or every month to pay for it all, checking the kids’ school and extracurricular calendars, and setting goals for the kids to earn the trip through good grades or keeping up on their chores are all things that could be smaller pieces to work towards in pursuit of that bigger goal. Decorate your finished staircase or ladder, hang it up somewhere you all can see, and find fun ways to show how you’ve climbed higher towards those big goals as the year goes on. You could put it on the fridge and get magnets for each member of the family to move up or however creative you want to get!
- Keep it super professional and all digital. Use an app like Trello to set goals, assign tasks, and establish weekly/monthly/quarterly checkpoints. Link it to your calendar. Set reminders. Add attachments. Share it with the fam. It’s also a good way to teach your kids about project management, delegation, and working as a team!
Whatever way you decide to tackle New Year’s resolutions, the point of it shouldn’t be to overwhelm you. It should be a striving towards being better, doing better, and experiencing even better things than the year before. Keeping it fun for the whole family will make it much easier to stick to working towards your goals. And, if you don’t get it all done in one year, reevaluate next January and see what you can tweak to make the next year even greater! Happy New Year, Louisville!!!
