New Year, New You: How to Make Goals and Keep Them

As we get closer to the New Year it’s the perfect time to start thinking about your new year resolutions. Every year so many people make goals for themselves and never follow through with them. Let’s make this the year that we all become the best versions of ourselves. By using simple techniques we can keep our goals for the whole year and not just a couple weeks. 

To quote Dwight from the office, “keep it simple stupid.” That is what a goal should be: simple, and achievable. So don’t set a goal that you won’t keep because it’s too difficult. That doesn’t mean don’t challenge yourself, but set a goal that you can achieve in a year. It also helps to have a goal buddy that can help keep you on your goal, and you can help them with theirs. Say your goal is working out, most people don’t like working out alone but if you have a buddy they can challenge you and push you to test your limits. Another way to keep yourself motivated is to celebrate the little successes. Even when you barely move forward it’s still movement so celebrate that. 

Another way you can help yourself keep your goals is to make them SMART goals. Smart stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time bound. Don’t make your goal super broad, create a goal that is specific and it will be easier to accomplish. Make a goal that you can measure, whether that’s pages in a book you read or how your speed has increased, have a way to measure it. Have a goal that is attainable, you don’t want a goal that is so far out of your reach you have no chance at completing it.  Realistic goals don’t mean set a goal you barely have to reach?, it means don’t set a goal to workout for 2 hours everyday when you don’t have enough time in your schedule and you haven’t been working out at all. Ease your way into it and it’ll be easier to achieve your goals. Setting goals that you need to accomplish in a set amount of time can help you be motivated to work on them. But no matter what goal you set, let it be personal to you and that’ll be one of the best motivators there is.