New Year, New You - How I'm Changing My Approach To New Year's Resolutions

New year, new you! Every new year brings with it the promise of a new beginning and a fresh start. And as we all know, making resolutions is easy , it's sticking with them that's the hard part.

The new year is the perfect time to take stock and set goals for the year ahead. You may have plans to improve your health, exercise more frequently, eat healthier, be more organized or finally take that solo trip to Machu Pichu you've been dreaming about forever. For most of us, making new years resolutions can help align and focus our efforts and energy towards achieving a set of goals.

Often, when we want to change something in our life, we set goals. Big goals like, I want to lose 50 pounds, or I am going to exercise everyday or I am going to eat healthy and so on. The real challenge to these goals is really sticking up to it and often times, that is the biggest hurdle. Over the years I have made resolutions and goals I wanted to achieve in life and like everybody else, there comes a time when I get sidetracked and the goals become easily overwhelming that I fall off track and lose motivation.

When we create New Year Resolutions for ourselves, sometimes we create an unseen pressure to become something we are not or in a time frame that is not realistic. Sometimes, the key to generating greater fulfillment and achieving what we want to accomplish begins instead with an acceptance and appreciation for what we are already doing really well. In fact, if we are constantly trying to think of ways to improve ourselves, it can make it really easy to lose sight of what is actually working for us.

So this year 2020, I have decided to make things different. Don't get me wrong though. If new year's resolutions are your thing and it keeps you organized and on track when it comes to achieving a certain set of goals, then by all means...do you! This is all fine and dandy! But this year though I am focusing more on the WALK rather than the TALK. Instead of focusing on the BIG goals, I will be focusing on the small steps to take to get to the big goals. Ones that I can be sure I will do religiously everyday and commit to. I am a planner addict and I find it extremely helpful to make a list of a lot of things I need to do. From everyday tasks to reminders, to steps and list of things to do and goals to achieve. So I have all my tasks written in my planner and I made myself a daily habit tracker so I can track my progress. It keeps me motivated and it encourages me to keep going. That is just the way I am. That is how I do things. So whatever works for you, do it.

Instead of rigid declarations, for instance, I am approaching my new goals like riding a wave or allow them to unfold like a blooming flower. It is true there are times when your goal planning calls for specific, definitively outlined goals, but there are also many times when you know you need to change the direction of your life, but you may not know what the end goal will look like exactly. You do not have to have it all mapped out and risk assessed or all the answers before you begin to move things forward in the direction you want to go. Just take one, small step, then go from there. That is exactly what I plan on doing.

Happy New Year everyone and the best of luck in the year 2020

XOXO,

Karen