Huzzah, it’s 2017! With a change in the year humanity collectively seems to gaze towards a brighter happier future (at least for a little while). We make plans and set our minds on finally getting around to losing a bit of weight, getting out of debt or just or changing our entire lives around. We look to the future and we dream, yet year after year so many of us seem to falter. Why is it that so many people set resolutions but don’t ever seem to be able to accomplish them? All month long we are going to look at ways in which you can reach for your dreams and succeed in 2017.
The most obvious place to start is with what you want to accomplish. You would be surprised how many people that I talk to who have New Year’s resolutions that really aren’t resolutions at all. The desire to lose more weight, pick up a new skill, accomplish a dream is within almost all of us. Yet how many of us set out to lose “some” weight or exercise “better?” What these types of resolutions lack are actual goals!
Lets talk about what a goal really is. First it is something you want to achieve. Not so hard, right? A goal is not a nebulous, moving target, they are something you want to be able to aim for. Goals require specifics, how much weight do you want to lose? How will you learn that new skill? What exercise are you improving, is it your time in the 5k? The more specific your target is the more you will be able focus on actually attaining it.
Since we are already on the subject, lets also be sure that we are setting reasonable goals. I can’t pick up a new sport (say archery for example) and expect to be an expert at it in just a week or two. If you want to be an expert at something, great! Just figure out what you will need to do to get there first, like maybe taking a lesson or getting a coach. As you have probably guessed setting a goal is very much a balancing act. You don’t want to set the bar so incredibly high that you can never attain it but at the same time you don’t want to set the bar so low that you can do it in a weekend. No one is impressed when you tell them you lost two whole pounds this year or that you ran to the stop sign on the corner. Resolutions, goals and dreams should always be things that challenge us, that are just out of reach.
Finally our New Years Resolutions should be measurable. In other words we should be able to track our progress throughout the year. We will talk more about goal tracking in a few weeks but for now just keep in mind that you are at the beginning of a journey. You don’t have to do everything all at once. Those who plan to lose weight will be told to weigh themselves at least weekly. Runners are told to keep a mileage log. Archers keep track of their scores. When we have a record of where we started and how far we have come it is easier for us to stay motivated and to stay on track for our goals.
Maybe you haven’t set a goal for this year yet, or you have already managed to bungle your no chocolate rule. So what? The year is long! It is never to late to start working on your goals. Even if you have never made a new Year’s resolution before, you can still start today. I can’t tell you it will be easy or guarantee that you will be successful but I can say that it is always worth the effort to try. We learn from the experiences we accumulate, we grow and we expand our knowledge with each new year. Let this year be the year you take a new step in your journey. Let this be the year you take a step towards being the best you that you know how to be.