Every year at this time, people create resolutions, or goals, for their new year. “New Year, New Me” is a common mantra you’ll hear. It seems nothing is off limits in terms of the resolutions people set for themselves.
Get “in shape”
Eat better
Find a relationship
Cut off toxic relationships
Love oneself more
But most fail to be a consistent change throughout the year for most people. There are plenty of think pieces about why these resolutions don’t work out. And while I don’t technically call them resolutions, I do still set goals for myself every year, even though I know I will probably not meet them.
I do them as a challenge to myself, to see what I can accomplish.
I do them as an aspiration for myself, to see where I would like to be by the end of the year.
I do them as accountability to myself, to ensure I’m at least working towards something.
And while I set goals for myself in 2018, I did not achieve most of them. And it’s not that they weren’t achievable goals, it’s that I did not do the work required to achieve them. And I knew that could be the case when I set them. I prepared to give myself grace as I went into the year, knowing I would fall short.
And I did fall short. I didn’t feel like working toward my goals. And then I felt bad that I didn’t feel like it. Then I felt like I wasn’t an author because I wasn’t writing, so I wrote even less. That spiraled into not feeling like a musician because I wasn’t making music, so I made music even less. And as much as I’d like to lay the blame on a job, life, medical conditions, depression, anxiety, etc., I know it’s not up to those things to work to achieve my goals, it is up to me.
I didn’t put in the work
I didn’t put in the time
I didn’t put in the prep
I wasn’t proactively productive
But that doesn’t mean I’m not still an author and musician. It just means I know where I need to focus this year on my goals.
So even though last year saw me not achieve most of my goals, I’m still setting goals for this year. In the process, I’m evaluating why I didn’t achieve my goals last year and implementing changes in my life to fix them.
I’m scheduling times on my calendar to write and make music, to force myself to do it even when I don’t necessarily want to.
I’m using the Pomodoro technique when working to achieve my goals so that I can stay focused, and still allow myself to take breaks.
And I’m planning to set up a monthly emotional/mental wellbeing inventory.1 This will allow me to see what in my life is draining me and reduce it, but also what in my life is giving me energy and try to increase it.
What stopped you from achieving your resolutions or goals last year?
What are you doing to overcome those obstacles in the new year to achieve your new resolutions and goals?
