Enter, New Years Resolutions!
The only problem is that making goals and resolutions can be so overwhelming! There are just so many things to work on. We've discussed spiritual goals, physical goals, behavioral goals, financial goals, parenting goals, and recreational goals. And before you know it we have a list so long that we would be 80 before we could accomplish all of those things. Then add on top of that the odds of actually sticking with a goal for a whole year, and you have yourself a problem.
So, I am asking you, friends and readers. What goals or resolutions are you making for the new year? And how do you intend to stick with your goals? How do you make yourself accountable? What have you done in the past to successfully reach your goals and resolutions? I would really love your feedback, so please share!
Because I really believe that people can change for the better:)
8 comments:
I don't have an answer for you because I'm not sure i ever have stuck to a resolution longer than January... but if you figure it out, PLEASE let me know. :)
I haven't thought about resolutions for this coming year, but I made some last year and actually accomplished them! :) The most important things I did were:
-Make the goal specific. One of my goals was to get down to what I weighed in high school--160. I could have just said "I want to lose weight." But making it specific makes it less easy to fail.
-I also made smaller goals. I decided how often I wanted to work out each week, how many calories I wanted to burn each time, and figured out how many calories I should be consuming. There were several weeks that I failed miserably. But since I knew exactly what I wanted/needed to do to accomplish my goal, it made it easier to hop back on.
-I made myself accountable. In my case I told Kirby where I was weight-wise at LEAST once a week. I also wrote about it on my blog (though not as often as I'd originally planned) so I felt more accountable to actually reach my goal since people knew about it.
-Lastly--I set a deadline. This is probably the most important. I knew I needed to lost a certain amount of weight per week on average to reach 160, so that was great motivation to keep trying after weeks that I didn't do so well.
-Oh, and I also set a reward for myself. :) One that I knew would motivate me in my goal. In my case it was money for smaller clothes, but it can be anything. It also helps to have smaller rewards along the way as you reach certain milestones.
WOW. Now that I've written you a novel... best of luck with your resolutions! :) I'm sure you'll do awesome.
Oh man, that's a hard one! Ryan and I always fizzle out around Feb. or March. But, one thing we have done was make a list, and then pick like 5 reasonable goals, print them out, and hang it up all over the house where we can see it daily...It's helped! We have so many goals for this year, I don't even know where to start!
We pick 3 each year and make them something that we know we can achieve. Then we print them out and hang them on our fridge. I'm not claiming it works everytime, but to have them in front of us is a constant reminder. I wish I had better advice. Good luck!
I used to make a huge list of all my resolutions and goals for the new year. Then about a two years ago I realized that I never accomplished half of them and always felt so discouraged. So I started picking 2-3 things to work on each year. Last year my big one was to be an unconditional friend and to complaint less. This year was to work on my talents and be more optimistic. I don't know yet what my resolution will be for 2011, but I am really happy with how I have been able to really work on these past few years.
I have never done this, but I went to a class on organization and the lady always made up a family theme for the year. Then everyone picked a goal that was in line with that and they all reported back the next Christmas. I think their goals were mostly spiritual. I didn't write down any of their examples, so I can't give you one, but I thought it was a cute idea.
In the past, I had the typical "lose weight" goal. And I never made a big deal about the goal, so then, when I failed (as I inevitably did), nobody knew anyway... This past year, I decided to try a different tactic. I made several goals in various categories. And I explained them on my blog. And then, at 4 months in, I did an update to hold myself accountable and told the whole blogosphere what I had accomplished to that point. And at 8 months in, I did the same. I will do it again at 12 months. And then next year I will set new goals and do the same thing. Because I saw success this year. Particularly, I think, because I put it out for everyone to see. And I forced myself to be honest. With a lot of the the things, that wasn't hard. Because I'd made good headway. (ie, so far I've lost 13 of the 20 pounds I wanted to lose this year; I planted my first garden and was successful!; I paid off all my debts). Others were not as great to 'fess up to. Mostly these were spiritual ones (how sad that I lack so severely there...). But I forced myself to own my shortcomings. And yeah, some of them will go back on my list -- like really STUDYING the scriptures, because I do a much better job of just READING them. But I feel good for what I did accomplish, and I enjoyed updating my progress on those goals for the people who read my blog. Because putting it in writing, both the goal and how I was doing with reaching those goals, really was rewarding for me.
Ahh, see...I'm more Calvin then Hobbs on this one. I know I *should* set goals and I occasionally do...but it's a toughie. Maybe next year, right?
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