“I want to be fit, I want to earn more, or perhaps, I want to buy a house” these are all new year resolutions and goals a lot of people might want to achieve.
However, the truth is most people are unable to achieve their dreams and goals all through the year. Now, the question is why?
Why can’t I achieve my goals? The picture in my head is very beautiful so why exactly can’t I achieve them? What is stopping me from taking the necessary steps to make my dreams a reality?
The two months before the end of the year is a very stressful and depressing month for some people. They spend time trying to figure out what they have achieved with their lives and what they could have done differently.
Once again, we are at that time of the year where people focus on self-reflection and feel sorry for themselves.
But guess what? The harsh reality is- no matter how long you feel sad for yourself’ it cannot change anything.
Feelings or emotions cannot change anything unless you add actions. For example, if you stay alone and one day your injury yourself badly. What can you do?
You can sit at the point of the incident and cry all day but that wouldn’t change anything. However, if you choose to call for help people will rush to your aid.
It’s about time you stop feeling sorry for your past mistakes and actually take the necessary steps and actions to achieve your goals in the coming year.
What are a new year’s resolutions and goals?
When your favorite football team shoots the ball into the next of the other team, everyone screams goal!!!!!!!
Now, this is not exactly the goal we are talking about although, they can have similar functionality if you try to compare them.
New year resolutions and goals are futuristic plans you want to achieve in order to improve your life. The English dictionary defines a goal as something you want to achieve, on the other hand, resolutions are endpoints, vows, or a strong intention.
For instance, if last year you procrastinated a lot and it affected your job productivity, you might decide to quit procrastination in the upcoming year.
This will boost your work productivity, instead of making a lot of mistakes or missing deadlines you can complete your tasks earlier than the assigned deadlines.
The relationship between the new year and goals
A lot of people are properly wondering “what’s the big deal between the new year and resolutions?”
It might sound sentimental but a lot of people believe that the new year is a chance for them to change their lifestyles and upgrade their life.
The new year feels like a new beginning, it comes with new opportunities, new trends, new connections, and new people. What is the best time to turn a new leaf rather than the state of a new year?
While some people might claim that the new year is just another day on the calendar. This might be true, but the fact remains that it is also the start of a new year (e.g., 01-01-2022).
The word “new” signifies a chance to start afresh, an opportunity to let go of past mistakes and forge ahead with the lessons you have learned. It is a time to make a decision about how you want the next 365 or 366 days of your life to turn out.
Goals are achievements or new heights you want to attain; people make goals every day, week, and month. However, the new year goals are the benchmark that other smaller goals seek to achieve.
For example, if you want to build a house in the coming year, this is the new year’s goal. The smaller daily or monthly goals can be to take extra jobs, reduce your spending, start an investment portfolio, and other plans that can help you get the money you need to build a house.
Money is the key factor here but you might also need other things (building materials) and people (such as the engineer or architect). All these are smaller goals that you need to achieve in order to achieve the big goal of building your house.
Therefore, the new year resolutions and goals are the major achievements we plan to actualize by the end of the year. The little steps or plans we put in place are all targeted at achieving our major goals.
5 ways to achieve your new year resolutions
If you want to achieve the new year goals you need to change your pattern. Here is a series of questions to help to figure out that inactive pattern.
- Did you have a plan?
- What were your plans?
- How many plans did you have?
- Did you listen to toxic or pessimistic people?
- How many setbacks did you face and how did they affect you?
Follow these five tested steps to achieve your new year resolutions and goals in the upcoming year.
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Brainstorm about your plans
Most times people go about their plans the wrong way- they get a book and pen and write down everything they feel they can achieve.
The keyword is “feel” setting goals based on your emotions or feelings is wrong. What happens when that feeling is no longer active? What will you do?
On the days you don’t feel like doing anything thing, it’s not your emotions that will take you out of bed rather, it is determination and persistence.
If your plans are all emotion-laden decisions there will be little to no driving force to push you towards your goals.
Write down all the goals you feel you need to achieve, then think carefully about them and ponder about their usefulness.
- How does it help you achieve your major goal?
- Does it abound by the SMART principle?
- Is it a short-term or long-term plan?
- What do you need to achieve the goal?
Don’t ever set goals or write down plans without brainstorming about your ideas.
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Set clear goals
“I want to be more productive” how? In what aspect of your life? How do you plan to achieve this feat?
Your goals must be clear enough to get you jumping out of bed every morning- “I want to work out for 15 minutes every day before work, it makes me more active” Now, this is a clear goal.
Whenever your alarm goes off but you still feel like sleeping, you will easily remember that if you don’t work out today you will feel dull at work. I don’t know about you, but that is enough to get me jumping out of bed.
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Write out a well-defined plan
You need to be precise about your plans, it should be concise but contain all the necessary information you need to achieve your goal.
For instance, if your major goal is “time management”
Then this is exactly what your plan should look like;
January = Wake up an hour, thirty minutes before work every day
Work time = 7:00am
Sleep time = 9:00pm
Wake up time = 5:30 am
Morning chores/ self-care(brushing, bathing, make bed, breakfast) = 5:32am – 6:15am
Leave the house = 6:20am
Your day is completely planned till you leave the house and the most important thing is the minutes or seconds attached to every task.
Use this format to create every plan.
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Follow the steps daily
If you want to achieve your new year resolutions and goals you need to be consistent every day. You should not give yourself the space to be lazy or give up on your dreams and goals.
On the days you don’t feel like sticking with your plans, that’s when you should force yourself to do it.
Never let procrastination rob you of the life you dream about if a few discomforts is all you need to endure. Then, you should endure it with a smile on your face.
Put in extra efforts to ensure that you stick to your plans every day especially on the days you don’t feel like doing it.
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Have a “can do” mentality
The end of your dreams and goals begins when you have the “I can’t mentality” this is a toxic and pessimistic attitude that will destroy your plans before they are created.
Why are you scared? What’s the worst that can happen?
The worst that can happen is- you fail to try and remain in that same reality that you don’t feel comfortable with.
All new year resolutions and goals had setbacks, some worst than others but the truth is, only people with a “can do” mentality can achieve their goals.
No one is asking you to be perfect, so you shouldn’t even ask this of yourself. Just show up every day, work hard and never relent.
Believe in your goals and vision, be more focused on them than your fears or naysayers.
Conclusion
Have you set your new year resolutions and goals? Did you think you can achieve them? Of course, you can achieve whatever you want.
Now is not the time to make wishes and blow out a candle, it is time to sit upright and put in all efforts to ensure that you get the life you dream of.
Don’t sleep on your goals and dreams, follow the steps listed in these articles and you will be surprised at what you will achieve.
I’m rooting for you!
