The tradition of setting goals and resolutions on New Year’s has gone on for a long time. As our earth completes another revolution around the sun, so, too, do we complete another cycle of our lives. New Year’s symbolizes a fresh start, and with that, we can dedicate ourselves to making sure that it is a positive start.
But you have to be careful when setting a resolution. It’s all too easy to put too much pressure on yourself. The point of a New Year’s resolution is to accomplish something to feel better about yourself. You don’t want to end up feeling worse by setting unrealistic expectations that you can’t even meet.
This article is all about selling healthy New Year’s resolutions. It will help you understand how to set goals that aren’t going to overwhelm you. We will also provide some examples of common New Year’s resolutions that many people have succeeded in achieving.
Why Set New Year’s Resolutions?
Why even bother selling New Year’s resolutions?
In some ways, this is a great question. Why should we only set resolutions on New Year’s? Shouldn’t we be setting new resolutions and goals all the time?
The answer to that is yes, we should. However, it’s not always easy to get into the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Setting resolutions at New Year’s time is a good opportunity because there are lots of other people doing it. Your friends and family can help psyche you up and hold you accountable.
For younger children and teenagers, New Year’s may be the first time that they experience setting goals and resolutions. In this case, it can be a good opportunity to teach them how to practically approach problems and find solutions.
How to Avoid Putting Pressure On Yourself
But what exactly are reasonable expectations? For many, it’s hard to draw the line between setting a resolution that’s too difficult and setting a resolution that is so easy that it won’t lead to any serious gains.
One idea is to make sure that you don’t set your goals too extravagantly. For example, if you’re interested in losing weight, don’t set your goal to be something like “Lose 20 pounds by the end of January. “
Even though this might be reasonable for some, it can be completely unreasonable for somebody who is starting a new exercise routine. If this is the case, a much more realistic goal would be to simply start a regular exercise routine.
Don’t bother with any specific numbers. If you’re new to a hobby or activity, setting a specific quantity on your achievement can create a lot of stress and pressure. Instead, resolve to simply engage in the activity on a regular basis.
Following that, you can remember that New Year’s only needs to serve as one step on a gradual path to success. It’s not the only time for you to set goals. In fact, if you treat your New Year’s resolution as one small step in a series of goals that will lead to something awesome, then you won’t get overwhelmed. You can set your goals and see that they’re relatively small, easily achievable, and realistic. This way, you’ll still be able to accomplish them, you’ll still feel good about yourself, and then you’ll be ready to set another goal right away.
Ideally, a New Year’s resolution would kick-start the habit of setting goals and resolutions year-round. We don’t only need to improve ourselves in January. It should be our goal as humans to wake up every day a bit better than we were the day before. This way, we can commit to achieving micro goals on a regular basis that will reward us with consistent improvement to our character.
Why Is Goal-Setting So Important?
Many people find the practice of setting goals to be boring and tedious. Unfortunately, these people often struggle to achieve the things that they want. Setting goals is only boring and tedious if you constantly set goals for yourself that are too hard to achieve or if you’re forcing yourself to set goals about things you don’t care about.
If you set the bar too high consistently, then you will associate goal setting with hard work and disappointments. On the other hand, if you set small goals that can be easily achieved and it sets you on the path towards some greater achievements, you may actually start to enjoy setting goals. Setting goals allows you to break down an overwhelming project, task, or accomplishment into smaller and more manageable sections.
For example, imagine reading a long novel with no chapters. In fact, there are no paragraphs at all. (Jack Kerouac’s original manuscript of The Road can be purchased in this lengthy, unedited form if you’d like to try to slog through it!)
On the other hand, books that are neatly broken into paragraphs and chapters allow you to enjoy sizeable chunks of the story. Finishing a chapter is like finishing a goal. Once you finish the chapter or the goal, you can savour it in your memory but need not return to it.
Paragraphs, then, can even serve as micro-goals. If you’re not quite up to finish an entire chapter, you can at least finish a paragraph. Likewise, if you’re not up to tackling your entire goal at the moment, then break that goal up into smaller chunks that can be accomplished without much effort at all.
- Breaking your life into goals like a book is broken into chapters allows you to achieve things that you might not have thought possible. Entrepreneurs, musicians, and other successful people don’t always just fall into the limelight. Oftentimes, they achieve their success by having a clear idea of what they want and setting clear but achievable goals that they can accomplish to get them there, step-by-step.
- Goals provide people with structure. An unstructured life is not necessarily a bad thing, but it may tend to lack direction. Those who lack structure in their life often wonder where they’re going or what they’re doing. By setting goals, you can clarify what you want to do and how you’re going to do it.
- Goal setting also helps to strengthen self-esteem. If you are consistently setting achievable goals for yourself, and then accomplishing them, then you’re going to feel pretty good about yourself at the end of every day. You’ll start to wake up in the mornings knowing that you’re capable of doing whatever you set out to do. This self-confidence will start to express itself in your work and daily activities.
Conclusion
New Year’s is a great time to set resolutions, but it can be even more beneficial if you use this opportunity to get into the habit of regular goal setting. Setting goals can help you take control of your life and learn how to achieve the things you really want to.