How to set better New Year’s resolutions, goals and intentions
‘New year, new me’ is a phrase we’re all too familiar with. But realistically, most of us don’t magically transform into a better version of ourselves when we complete another rotation around the sun. Yet, there’s a sweet satisfaction in definitve endings and beginnings that make this time ripe for setting resolutions for the upcoming 12 months. [Join our free intention & goal-setting workshop for 2022!]
Typically, we’re quite optimistic and ambitious at the beginning of a new year and set unrealistic goals for ourselves that we abandon by the spring. This makes us quite human.
Perhaps a more practical and gentler approach is to first take stock of what transpired in the bygone year and then get intentional about how we want the new year to flow. A new year offers us a beautiful opportunity to stop and reflect on the direction we’d like to follow in the next 12 months.
A neat alternative to setting rigid goals and resolutions we may not be able to follow through with is ‘The Rosebud Diaries’ — an exercise that features metaphorical roses (3 wins from the past year), thorns (3 struggles faced that year) and buds (3 hopes for the new year). At life of leisure, we’re big advocates of cultivating self-awareness and this exercise is great because its core tenet is based on reflecting and acknowledging the good, the bad and the ugly that took place while asking what you hope to accomplish/feel/do/be in the new year.
Of course, the ‘buds’ or hopes for the new year can be three main goals (and no more!) you want to tackle. If you take this approach, I suggest breaking them into professional, personal and habitual goals.
A professional goal is obviously career or job-related. For example, getting that pay rise you’ve been meaning to ask for, or switching career paths. A personal goal is related to your health, home or relationships (for example, mending a strained relationship with a family member). A habitual goal is a small but powerful habit that you can alter to live a more meaningful life. A great example is deciding to watch less Netflix and online television (if you’re like me and prone to bingeing).
Whatever method you decide to use to assess the shape you’d like the new year to take on, the important thing is that you become an active participant in your life rather than a passive observer to whom life happens to.
Other resources to help you set goals:
- An emotional planning worksheet
- Setting good (enough) resolutions
- Practical resolutions to adhere to
