The Difference Between New Year's Resolutions and Goal Setting
As the year comes to an end, people often look forward to coming up with their New Year’s Resolutions. As motivating and exciting as it may seem, it’s not necessary to depend on a certain date to start working towards your goals. Everyone has different resolutions, they can vary from changing old habits to trying to adapt to a new lifestyle. No matter the resolution, I believe that you shouldn’t have to wait till the New Year to start reaching your dreams.
Sometimes it may feel like coming up with goals for the new year makes them easier to achieve or just the thought of starting fresh can be satisfying, but a date shouldn’t play a major role in deciding when to work towards a new goal or achievement. When waiting for the date to come, if you are not proactive during the waiting period, it’s easy to lose focus or interest on working towards that resolution. Along with this, New Year’s Resolutions can often be unrealistic and possibly unhealthy in the long run. These are some common reasons why it’s hard for people to stick to their resolutions, achieving your dreams can’t happen overnight.
The phrase, “New Year New Me,” is often stated by many individuals who are working on their resolutions. Often, it may feel like you have to make a transition into your dream self by the New Year, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect reality. Lastly, this may not be the best way to maintain consistency when it comes to the things you may want to achieve. Consistency plays a key part in reaching your resolutions, being able to distribute the bigger goal into more manageable parts and having the goal planned out within a realistic timeframe is a way to not get defeated by too much pressure. Some goals might be made for the sake of having New Year’s Resolutions, but it might not be something you really want to achieve or you know you will put your 100% into. I would recommend putting these goals aside, for another time, and working on what is higher up on the list of priorities.
Instead of putting goals on your list of New Year’s Resolutions, keep them separate and work towards them at your own pace.
Is there another approach to consider instead of limiting yourself to New Year’s Resolutions? Maybe try goal setting. Goal setting is more effective and productive as you have everything planned out and ready for when you start. Some key components, to keep in mind, about goal setting and achieving them is having a realistic time frame, staying consistent, coming up with reasonable and realistic goals, and possibly reflecting on how this will positively affect you.
One effective way to plan and come up with a realistic time frame (for your goal) is by using a planner. This could be either digitally or on paper, as long as you have easy access and enough space. Having a planner can be effective because being able to see the smaller tasks planned out can make the goal seem less tedious or intimidating. Since you are aware about how you’re going to begin working on it. Having a planner also means organization, so this can help you come up with new ideas or write down smaller achievements that keep you going, and they can be a huge motivator.
Another important part of goal setting is that you work based on days, weeks, or months, not years. The smaller steps that are taken in order to reach your main or bigger goal should be paced, and they should start being checked off in a matter of months or less. That way you know you are progressing towards your bigger goal efficiently.
Equally as important as reaching your goals is, it’s also crucial to reflect on your journey and understand the big takeaway, as well as why you thought about this goal in the first place. Reflection can really help you understand and also better yourself and grow. Looking through your planner can help you see what steps you took and whether or not they helped as much in the long run and maybe how that impacts how you would work towards new goals. If you ever get stuck, here are some questions you could potentially ask yourself: Did I accomplish this goal in the timeframe I gave myself? How has reaching this goal helped me grow? Does this goal connect to any other goals that I have in mind? Was this method of goal setting effective, if not what could I try next time? There are endless possibilities of questions you could come up with, just make sure they are relevant and insightful.
There isn’t only one way to achieve your goals, different people are able to adapt to different methods. My biggest recommendation is to try out different methods and see what works for you. New Year’s Resolutions aren’t ineffective or a bad way to plan out your goals. I would just emphasize trying out methods that are proven to be more accurate or effective, but it really comes down to what works best for you!
Tips!
Time management is crucial, but someday’s are just busier than others, and that’s perfectly okay. One thing to definitely keep in mind though, is try to set aside a little bit of time, this could even be 10-15 minutes, depending on your goal, but this will help you not lose motivation and focus.
Planners can sometimes be expensive, so I would recommend using an empty notebook or writing on separate pieces of paper and then storing them in a folder. The key is to have all of your thoughts and plans organized together in one place.
If paper isn’t really your thing, digital planners could work too! You could use Google Spreadsheets, this way you can label each box according to your organization method. Other apps can include the free IOS apps, such as Notes and Journal. Lastly, there are many apps that are designed specifically for journaling, but usually cost a little bit of money.