You might be wondering why I am posting this now when we are over a week into the new year. Well, they say that January 12th is the day that most people give up their new years resolutions. You don’t have to be one of those! To help you stick with it, here are some tips to help you set attainable goal and stick to them.
First things first, stop making resolutions! I’m serious, resolutions are too vague, this is why I and countless others, rarely achieve our New Years resolutions. Instead, make yourself Goals for the New Year! In the past, my resolutions were usually to save money, lose weight or something lame like that. I always forgot about them after the first few weeks of the month (or by January 12th, ha). The year that I set a detailed goal to learn all my customers names at the coffee stand I managed, I made lots of progress and kept with it for several months until I had learned most of their names!
Learning from that, I set myself several detailed goals for this year. My biggest goal for 2021 is to be a better version of myself, more specifically I want to focus on some things my counselor taught me. I talked about these in my post about parenting during a pandemic. I want to stop saying ‘I should‘ and start saying I will, I will do a load of laundry today instead of I should do a load of laundry today. I want to stop comparing myself to others and assuming that I know what others are thinking. I would also like to be less selfish and make sure I check in with my husband more regularly about how he is doing and asking him if he needs to do something to ‘fill his cup’. He does SO much around the house and always picks up the pieces when I am struggling, which has been a lot recently.
Other goals I have include going on at least one adventure with my daughter a week, this can include a walk to the park or in the woods or out on a drive to some place we have never been. Also, I would ideally like to deactivate my Facebook again, I did this for the majority of 2020 and it made a HUGE difference in my mental health and happiness. However, I want to be able to share my blog posts with people on Facebook, so I will only go on once a week for that. My last goal for the year is to work out or do some kind of exercise at least 4 times per week.
Make sure to set goals for yourself that are attainable and detailed. Avoid vague goals like ‘save money’, ‘lose weight’ or ‘get healthy’. (Side note- when trying to lose weight or get healthy, focus on how you feel, not the number on the scale!) Instead set goals like ‘set aside $100 a month in my savings account’ (check out my post about saving money), ‘work out for 30 minutes 6 days a week’ or ‘make at least 5 healthy homemade dinners per week’. Write your goals down somewhere you will see them every day, on your mirror or your fridge and cross it off if you’ve accomplished it, I wrote mine on my bathroom mirror. If it’s a daily/weekly/monthly goal, check it off on the calendar. You can and will do it! Lastly, if you need some extra motivation, check out Rachel Hollis’ books (links are below in my Amazon picks) she is very good at motivating people to follow their dreams!
If you need help coming up with some good goals for yourself, check out the ideas below:
- Read more- read 30 minutes per day or one book per month.
- Make one new recipe every week (try the app eMeals, I’ve been using it for a few months and I love it!).
- Get organized- organize one room a week.
- Drink less alcohol- only drink ___ (fill in the blank) times a month.
- Learn a new skill or hobby- choose your skill or hobby and set aside a couple hours a week to work on it.
- Reduce your waste- pick 5 or so things from my post 10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Waste and implement them in your every day life.
- Get rid of toxic chemicals in your home- every time you finish a container of something, replace it with a cleaner/non-toxic product (check back for a post about my favorite non-toxic products).
Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through these links. Please note that I’ve linked to these products purely because I recommend them and they are from companies I trust. There is no additional cost to you.
