Recognise any of these? According to most research, these are the most likely New Year Resolutions that you will be making each new year.
1. Exercise more
2. Lose weight
3. Get organised
4. Learn a new skill or hobby
5. Live life to the fullest
6. Save more money / spend less money
7. Quit smoking
8. Spend more time with family and friends
9. Travel more
10. Read more – don’t click 🙂
Of course, it’s great to set goals for the new year but to achieve them you need to make them smart:
Using the example for ‘Exercise more’, firstly what does exercise mean to you?
And what does ‘more’ mean?
Have you done any exercise before? What do you class as exercise? When can you exercise? What are you exercising for? How are you going to measure your success? How will you know when you have achieved your goal? What is going to motivate you to carry on when it gets tough? How long are you going to exercise for? How will you celebrate your success? Did you want to join a gym or classes?
BUT unless you make your exercise goal inspirational and fun, it will be hard to stay motivated over time.
I wanted to ‘exercise more’ but it had to be fun as I do get bored with going to a gym etc. I already enjoy walking every morning and will be taking longer walks and doing some running next year but this last year especially during lockdown, I learned how to dance.
It just so happened that my new partner danced modern jive, so we spent many hilarious evenings practising and I must say what a fantastic way to exercise.
I will be making my dancing a smart goal and practising at least 3 times a week to learn new dances.
The next step is to break your goal into smaller actionable steps. daily, weekly, monthly and write them down somewhere where you can see and update your progress.
You also need to find a way to be accountable with a like-minded group, friends or family.
Or you can be goal smart and join my next free ‘Make It Happen’ challenge starting soon.
