Setting Intentional New Year Goals

Happy New Year! With the new year brings up everyone’s dreaded question: what is your new year’s resolution? Goal setting, especially for the entire year can be overwhelming. People often don’t know where to begin or how to create attainable and measurable goals. And when you don’t see immediate results, it is easy to get discouraged. However, there are ways we can help set up your goals and help you realize that they can be attainable. 

Setting one goal that encompasses everything you want to change can be hard to keep track of. Creating multiple smaller goals can make it easier to measure your success, thus keeping you motivated to keep trying. For example, what is a social goal you want to attain in 1 month vs 6 months vs 1 year? Maybe you want to go out 2 weekends in one month, try a new activity in 6 months, and reconnect with an old friend by the end of the year. Giving yourself a timeframe and allowing yourself to have flexibility with your goals is important for motivation. 

Now it isn’t just hard to create goals, but it can be hard to follow through as well. Here are some tips for task completion to help you break down your big goals:

• If a task seems difficult to start, it may be too big. Try breaking it down into smaller steps. For example if you wanted to “learn to play the guitar,” try changing your initial goal to learning 3 chords instead. 

• Long term goals that cannot be broken down further should have a set time limit. For example, if you want to exercise everyday start with 20 minutes and gradually increase. 

• Remember that your tasks can be altered and changed. If a task is more difficult than expected you can break it down further or give yourself more time. If a task is too easy, combine it with other tasks. 

Remember that the new year is an opportunity for you to set new goals for yourself, but you can also set goals throughout the year and change them as you need. Give yourself some flexibility this year.