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The start of the new year brings new possibilities and adventures. To make the most of the year ahead, it’s important to start with a fresh perspective on our goals and how to reach them. This ultimate guide will provide you with practical tips on setting realistic goals, overcoming obstacles, and using the new year as a moment to hit the reset button – all while keeping your sights set on success.
Setting Intentional and Achievable Goals
Don’t let this year be another year of unfulfilled resolutions. If you’re anything like me, when new years comes around you have a solid list of resolutions set and ready to go starting on January first, but by the spring you’ve sort of fallen off track with some of them. It’s not hard to do, believe me, I get it. Life just sort of happens sometimes.
I’ve come to realize, that it’s not the goals I set that are the problem. It’s the details of those goals and how you frame them and break them down. Setting intentional and achievable goals will help them become goals that you can actually reach the finish line on.
I’m learning to break my bug life goals down into small, “bite sized” pieces. So to say. Once again, one of my goals for this new year is to lose weight and work harder on my physical fitness goals. In years past I would either set a huge, intimidating goal like “Loose 60 lbs this year”. Or for my fitness goals “be able to run 5 miles straight”. I set myself up for failure with these goals. This year I’m taking a different approach on my new year’s resolutions.
For instance, for my weight loss goals, I’ve broken my over all goal down into milestones. Such as “lose 5 lbs by February. A not-so-overwhelming goal. A starting point to get my momentum going because, let’s face it. When ever you start a weight loss journey, its incredibly hard not to be discourage by either how slow the weight comes off, the times it will fluctuate, and the times when you might gain little back. All of which make it feel like you will never reach the finish line of losing all of the weight you set out to lose. Instead, losing 5lbs, at least just to start the journey, seems a lot more achievable.
That being said, once I do achieve it I can celebrate my small victory and feel empowered to continue on my journey. I want my small wins to out weight the small set backs and discouraging moments that are inevitable on a weightless journey.
One other tactic that I’ve begun to employ in my new years weight loss journey, is setting small daily/weekly goals to achieve that support my over all goal. Such as “drink 80oz of water each day” or “log meals with macros into meal log each day”. These daily goals are becoming habits, which is awesome, and they support me in the big picture goal of losing weight.
Overcoming Fear and Self-Doubt
Whether your goal is to lose weight or maybe it’s to learn a new skill, be more social, make more home cooked meals, etc. You may find yourself face to face with some barriers infant of these goals when you first start out. Fear and self-doubt might be two of those initial barriers.
Sometimes, another name for this barrier is “imposter syndrome“. Defined by two clinical psychologists back in 1978, as…
“…the condition of feeling anxious and not experiencing success internally, despite being high-performing in external, objective ways. This condition often results in people feeling like “a fraud” or “a phony” and doubting their abilities.”
Maybe your goal is to “attempt to start a conversation with one new person each week or month, in order to meet a goal of becoming more social this year. Or a goal to write a book or put more focus into an artistic skill you have (writing, painting, etc). Imposter syndrome tends to lurk in the realm of goals such as these, and you can’t let it get the best of you. It’s difficult, I know.
Now you might be wondering how in the world you can overcome imposter syndrome now that you’ve realize you have it to some degree. From the same website as the definition of imposter syndrome, Betterup, they offer a solution to overcome this and I think it’s great.
SBNRR: Which they define as “Stop, Breathe, Notice, Reassess, and Respond.” Which I find to be a helpful technique for also dealing with moments of general anxiety, But this, in addition to several other techniques listed on Betterup will help you overcome any feelings of fear and self-doubt, and ultimately get you back on track to crushing your goals.
Fear and self doubt don’t always come in the form of imposter syndrome of feeling to be a fraud or phony. But just simply self-doubt in your ability to achieve a goal, and the fears that piggy back on those feelings. There are a number of ways you can work to overcome your fear and self-doubt, as this blog article has outlined nicely here.
I’ve found that talking to someone who I trust, about my goals and my fears that are stopping me have helped the most. But that’s just me. Having a strong support system can really make a world of difference.
Adding New Habits and Practices
Creating new habits and practices will be what really launch you toward your ultimate goal in the long run. Goals aren’t usually reached over night. They take work, patience, focus, and dedication on a regular basis. Which means shifting the way you do things that will impact your ability to reach your goals.
As I mentioned earlier on in this article, breaking your goals down into smaller, easier to achieve pieces can involve focusing on new daily habits that will support you in reaching your over all goal. Daily habits like drinking more water, walking more, getting more sleep, can all assist you in a goal to lose weight.
Other habits and practices you can work in are ones that support your process of reaching your goal. By that, I mean doing things regularly that hold you accountable for your goals. Such as writing down your goal with its steps listed, and checking them off one by one as you achieve them. Or having a friend or family member who you’ve chosen to be someone who holds you accountable to your goals. Checking in with them on a regular basis or them checking on you is another habit or practice that you can form to support you in reaching your goals this year.
Reframing Challenges as Opportunities
The practice of reframing a challenge can give you a serious advantage on your journey to reaching your goals. Instead of allowing a challenge or road block to make you feel like you’ve reached a set back, try reframing the challenge as an opportunity for growth and experience.
The first mental shift you will need to make in order to be able to reframe challenges into opportunities is to adopt a more positive perspective. Sure, any challenge or set back can easily be seen in a negative light. But, more often than not there is also a positive side to the challenge. Even if it isn’t apparent in that moment, there is likely a long term positive perspective that can be taken on the event.
You may notice I make weight loss goal examples often. That is because it is a goal that I have been focused on and have applied all of the tips I am listing here to my work towards my goal. My example here is if your goal is to lose weight and the holidays come around or even an unexpected event pops up with foods that are not supportive of weight loss. Either, you will take this challenge as an opportunity to learn how to continue to stick to your diet despite the bad food choices being presented to you. Or, you learn to enjoy those foods with restraint and still stay on track with your goal.
Your challenges will leave you with lessons learned, new techniques discovered, and realization of how strong and adaptable you are when a speed bump comes your way. The more challenges that you turn into opportunities for growth and learning, and more empowered you will begin to feel as you continue towards your ultimate goals.
With the new year comes the chance to hit the refresh button and start anew. It’s an opportunity to set intentions and create goals, overcome fear, and make the most of the moments given. Adding new habits and practices can keep us on track of achieving success, and even reframe challenges as opportunities for personal growth.
Now that you have the tools to make this year one of success and growth, tell me about your goals and tips for making the most of the new year!
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