5 Tips to Help Set Intentional Goals for the New Year

Hi Everyone!

With the start of a new year it is common for most people to make resolutions or goals to accomplish for the year. I know that New Year’s resolutions aren’t for everyone. For the majority of New Years I have set goals to fulfill for the next year. I’ve learned some tips and tricks from setting New Year’s goals for the entirety of my adult life. I thought I would share them as most of you will be re-evaluating your 2020 and determining what changes you would like to make for 2021! 2021 can only go up from here, right? (Right???)

Set Short AND Long-term Goals and Break Each One Down.
It’s tempting to only create long-term goals, because those are usually the most exciting. Buy a house, lose 30 pounds, or take a beach vacation are all goals that sound so exciting and are motivating, but they each need smaller goals in order to be attained. These are less glamorous, but are very important to reaching your goals. For example, to lose 30 pounds is a long-term goal. What short-term goals and habits do you need to implement in order to reach your long-term goal of losing 30 pounds? Add these smaller steps once a month or week and you will be able to reach your goal by the end of the year.
Long-term goal: Lose 30 Pounds.
Short-term goals: Workout 5x a week, start eating at home more, drink 100 ounces of water a day, or walk more often.
The short term goals will help in reaching your long-term goal and will make goal setting less daunting and overwhelming. You got this!
Set More Attainable Goals (and ones that are just out of reach).
I don’t know about you, but when I make a to-do list and can cross off items from my list it gives me a great sense of accomplishment. If all you have are lofty goals to reach, there will be fewer items to cross off your list. To me, that is defeating. Looking at a list that I haven’t crossed anything off of is intimidating! It makes me feel like I have made no improvements. When I set attainable goals that are still getting me to my somewhat-out-of-reach goals and can cross those off… I really feel like I am making progress– because I am! Maybe you’re not as visual as I am, but crossing items off just feels freaking good.
Write Your Goals Down
This doesn’t necessarily mean putting pen to paper. I always put my goals for the year in my notes app on my phone. This makes them extremely accessible to me whenever I want to review them. If you enjoy physically writing them down… do that! Seeing them written (or typed) out really helps to visualize yourself attaining them!
Re-visit Your Goals Often
If you take away ANYTHING from this post that is helpful, I hope that it is this!!! Don’t just plan and write out your intentions… re-visit them! And often. Anyone can put pen to paper and make a list of goals they want to achieve. But visiting them more frequently means the more they will be in the forefront of your mind. The more often you are thinking of them, the more likely you are to achieve them!
Set a Time Limit on Your Goals
I am not saying that if you don’t reach your goal by the time limit to just forget about the goal. Absolutely not. If you set a time limit of a month or by the end of the year and you still haven’t accomplished the goal, it may be time to re-evaluate and see if there are other means to achieve your goal. If your goal is to lose 10 pounds by the end of the year and it is June and you haven’t lost a pound, it may be time to find new strategies or find resources that you aren’t using right now.