Making Goals That Last: Keep Your New Year's Resolutions This Year!

Happy New Year! Hope you have had a wonderful holiday season! I'm here again to share a post about making life goals and sticking to them this New Years. 

As I write this, I update this post this year, I am, yet again, sick. Only this time, instead of being snuggled at home with my pup, I am holed up in my home office, getting work done, coughing, and drinking hot lemon water with honey. So long are the days of Christmas break, I am now an office-bound clinician.



Similar to the last few years, I've been drinking my weight in fluids, and resting as much as possible, given my full-time work schedule. My body obviously is on some sort of cycle of sickness. Not surprising, given the time of year, but oh-so inconvenient. I guess it's more motivation to take continued control of my health and wellness. Which means I guess this is a good a time as any to start thinking about my New Years Resolution.

Thankfully, I am not alone. Many, many fellow bloggers are also thinking of their resolutions for the upcoming year, and many have linked up with others to hold themselves accountable. What a brilliant idea!

Setting goals for myself has always been easy...it's the execution and accountability that is the tough part. I know the things I need to work on. I dwell on them throughout the year. When the times come for New Years Resolution, I dive in head first. However, usually within just a short couple of weeks (if even that!), my fire dwindles and my dream dies. That's it! No long drawn-out goodbye, no preparation, nada. It's just gone, and I feel numb. Numb because it's so darn cold outside because it's still the beginning of winter.

I went to a fabulous Goal Setting Workshop through Lululemon in the autumn of 2012. It had a wonderful grid to help me visualize my goals and write them down on paper. Check out their blog section on goal setting. This workshop has obviously stuck with me because I keep coming back to the worksheets and advice three years later (and counting).

This video may be of interest to you if you are wondering about the power of writing down your goals. It may also be worth a listen if you are nervous about making your goals more real, or concrete. This video comes from the Lululemon blog, and is short (only about a minute).

I love the idea of linking up with other bloggers to help hold each other accountable, but before I link up, I want to really set meaningful, manageable goals for the new year, and I suggest you do the same. Further, we need to be setting goals for ourselves; things we want to achieve, not things others want us to achieve, or things we think we should change about ourselves. For example, you might think I should start drinking apple cider vinegar each day, because I heard it's good for me, but if you hate the taste of it, what's the likelihood that you are going to stick with that? And if you hate it so much, is it really worth choking something down that you despise, when you could be making other meaningful changes to your life that will be just as powerful and not completely suck?

My first step is to identify my values and goals for my life overall. It's hard to make a resolution if it doesn't fit with your life plan and values for yourself. At the Goal Setting Workshop, we were provided with a terrific double-sided worksheet to help define these goals. I have adapted the first page slightly as seen below.

get this worksheet from my Google Docs

This worksheet was downloaded straight from the Lululemon blog. If you download the PDF file from the website and have access to Adobe, you can type directly into the form. I prefer writing down my goals with pencil (I'm sure it's something kinesthetic-related, but I don't know what)

get this worksheet from my Google Docs

I find this worksheet fabulous! Something about the set up, the colors, the font...it's all very enticing. It also helps that it comes from Lululemon, as I love them (as evident from my latest Tweet). If this worksheet doesn't work for you, don't be discouraged! When in doubt, create your own! Whatever works for you! But make sure when you do create something that works, maybe share it? Others would love to see it (I know I would!).

This may seem a little overboard for something as mundane and routine as a New Years Resolution, but let's be real...should changing your life for the better feel mundane? Should it be a chore? NO! The New Year should inspire you to change! Change is good! Opportunities are good! You should feel empowered to make these life changes, not trapped. So please, take this seriously, and I promise you, by this time next year, you won't feel like you've failed last year's "goals", nor will you dread expanding your dreams for the upcoming year.

Cheers to making lifestyle changes that last!

What changes/improvements/goals are you making this New Year? Comment to start a conversation!