3 Tips to Get Back on Track with Your New Year’s Resolutions
It’s New Year’s resolution season.
That time of year when the future seems bright.
With a fresh new year ahead of you, any goal seems attainable.
A few weeks into the year you may have already made some real progress. Collecting small wins and building momentum to carry you through the rest of the year.
Or maybe a few weeks is all it took for those high aspirations to wear off… The January 1st ambitions long gone as you settle back into business as usual, searching for the motivation to get back on track.
The second Friday of January is “quit day” when most people give up on their goals. So, you’re in good company.
But, regardless of where you fall, the importance of goals is undeniable.
If you have any desire, big or small, to change something in your life, you need a goal.
Without goals, you cannot grow. You will go through life, unconsciously lost, wandering with no real direction.
Without goals, you will be a passenger in your own life instead of the driver navigating to the final destination.
So whether you’re finally making this your year, or maybe you need a little nudge, read on for goal-setting tips that will help you reignite those New Year’s resolutions.
(And be sure to check out the Resolution Reset Worksheet to help build your foolproof plan to get back on track.)
Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Specific
I’m certainly not the first person to tell you to be specific when it comes to goal setting.
That’s because it’s a crucial first step in creating goals you can actually make progress with.
When you’re setting a goal, you need to be specific about what it is you really want.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re making a meal. You set a goal: “I want to make dinner.”
Well, what does that mean?
Is your dinner goal a salad? A hamburger? A big juicy steak?
Do you need to go to the grocery store to achieve this goal?
What ingredients do you need to buy?
Are you a vegetarian? Gluten-free? Vegetable adverse?
The sky’s the limit for the result of your dinner goal. Unfortunately, with zero specificity, you’ll likely be so overwhelmed with the sheer possibilities, you’ll lose motivation and be reaching for the takeout menu in no time.
Now, let’s get more specific with this goal: “I want to make grilled salmon with a side of mashed potatoes and green beans”.
Now we’re talking!
With this goal, you’ll know exactly what recipes to search for. What to add to your shopping list. And how long it might take you to prepare.
With this goal, you’ll be well on your way to getting exactly what you wanted by making it easier on yourself to formulate a plan with a clear path to achieve it.
Get Back on Track
Pull back up your New Year’s resolutions already collecting dust, and add some specificity.
Give yourself a clear end state that you’re working towards so you can easily break the goal into small chunks of tasks that make it a no-brainer. This will reduce your overwhelm causing you to give up.
Specificity leads the way!
Use Time Management Habits to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions
It’s not enough to just declare a goal.
Creating a clear path by setting a specific goal will get you closer.
But to really put the rubber to the road, you must decide when you’re going to work on your goals.
Break out that calendar, it’s time for some time management.
Let’s use a pretty common New Year’s resolution example: “I want to get healthier.”
If you’ve followed the first tip in this article, then you’ve already gotten more specific.
“I want to get stronger by lifting weights at the gym 5 times per week.”
Great. You’re on your way.
Now it’s time to schedule for success.
Look at your calendar and decide exactly when you will make time for these workouts. In the morning? During your lunch break? In the evenings?
Then schedule time to work on this goal as an appointment on your calendar.
As you schedule this time, your goals will start to feel tangible. You’ll start to get some confidence on how you’re going to make them happen.
Relying on your calendar as a tool will also help you avoid setting yourself up for unrealistic goals. You know those goals. The ones you dive into head first, but by week 2 have already fallen off the wagon.
When you schedule goal time on your calendar, you can easily see where you might run into challenges before they happen.
For example, when scheduling your 5 days of workouts you may find you already have other important obligations: regular client calls, a weekly date night, monthly book club…etc.
These, too, are important priorities as they feed other goals both personal and professional.
So instead of giving up on your health goal completely, find a schedule and a plan that could work.
Are there 3 days per week you can find the time? Start there.
You’re still going from working out 0 days per week, to 3. That’s a huge accomplishment! That’s still a worthy goal.
Get Back on Track
Open your calendar and add time that you will dedicate to working on your New Year’s resolutions you’re falling behind on.
Where can you fit them in? Do you need to adjust other commitments on your calendar? Do you need to adjust the specifics of your goal?
Continue to pull out that calendar each week to make the plan you feel committed to and confident about.
New Year’s Resolutions Can be Re-evaluated
Goal setting is often taking guesses.
You’re guessing at what you’ll need to do to achieve your goals, what’s actually possible, or how long something might take.
There’s no exact roadmap to success.
And sometimes your best guess doesn’t get you where you really wanted to be.
Goals aren’t set in stone. You learn. You grow. Life comes at you fast and priorities change. It’s those times when you’ll want to re-evaluate and either update your goal or change your plan.
Now, first things first, I’m not suggesting you change a goal as a means to avoid disappointment at not reaching it.
We often abandon goals when it becomes clear we may not achieve the outcome we hoped for. So, we quit. Not having the goal at all can seem far superior than the disappointment and shame of having the goal and not achieving it.
In these cases, avoid quitting completely. Instead, re-evaluate.
Re-evaluating could look like extending a deadline of the goal. Or changing your plan on how to get there.
For example, if your health goal included losing 5 lbs by March but you’re well into April…don’t quit. Extend the deadline to May and keep going.
Or if you’ve hit a season of life that makes the 3 days at the gym less realistic, change your path. Consider at-home workouts instead of going to the gym. Cut your workouts from 60 minutes to 30 minutes. Or combine other priorities like date night, with a couples yoga class.
You can redefine success and still make massive progress. When you re-evaluate or detour, you don’t have to change your goals. You just have to change the route.
Get Back on Track
Review your New Year’s resolutions you’re lagging on. Decide if adjusting the deadline or your path to success will help re-ignite your commitment. Update your plan and keep going.
During this process, be sure to give yourself a healthy dose of tough love.
If your other priorities and commitments are leaving you toying with the edge of burnout as you pursue your goals, then continue your re-evaluation.
But truly ask yourself if you’re re-evaluating because you’re avoiding the discomfort that comes with transformation and goal pursuits. Remember you can do hard things. Keep going. Just put one foot in front of the other and follow the plan.
Bonus Goal-Setting Tips
Here are a few other quick tips to get those goals back on track.
Write down your goals. Putting pen to paper helps you get clarity and make sense of what you’re thinking.
Try setting small goals so you can get in some ego-boosting celebrations. This is all about building confidence and trust in yourself that you can achieve what you set your mind to.
If you’re struggling to find time to work on your goals, lower your expectations on how much time you have to commit until you have zero excuses not to do it. Just 5 minutes a day can get you closer to your goals than spending zero time.
Ask yourself “when” you will work on your goal, not “if”. This puts your brain in problem solving mode to find time that will work while removing excuses.
Stuck? Use the Resolution Reset Worksheet to build your roadmap to success!
Goal setting is not just about what you achieve when the goal is met. It’s about who you become along the way.
How you handle the setbacks and challenges or how you appreciate and celebrate the small wins to build your confidence.
There is no end to goal setting, especially once you start getting some wins under your belt. By the time you arrive at the goal, you’ll be a whole new person. Likely someone who has even bigger ambitions as you start out on your next journey.
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About Me
Hi, I’m Kara. I’m a former workaholic turned time-management expert. I help women stressed out in their 9-5 get more done, in less time, so they can get back in the driver’s seat and start living a life they love.
