Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful and joyous holiday season and a wonderful first week of 2024! I’ve spent the past few days focused on my goals and plans for the new year. I always make resolutions for the new year, even though statistically most people give up on their resolutions by mid-January. But I am here to give you some tips for how you can stay focused and grounded to work through your new year’s resolutions all year round.

1. Write them down and keep them close: The Bible says, “write down the vision, and write it clearly.”  I have a vision board journal where I write down all my resolutions, my long-term goals, quarterly and annual reviews of my life, and past vision boards. This journal lives next to my bed; so, it’s close enough where I know where it is and can access it easily.
2. Break it down: I organize all my resolutions into categories: Personal/ Career + Professional/ Family + Friends/, Travel, and Financial. Breaking them down into categories makes it easier to list what I am hoping to achieve and makes it easier to stay focused on what I have yet to achieve throughout the year.
3. Follow–Up: I think one of the reasons why people give up on their resolutions is lack of discipline, but also, we don’t check-in and follow-up with ourselves. I review my resolutions each quarter, and in that review, I write down what has been accomplished. This allows me to celebrate my achievements and gives me the push to keep going. I also review my resolutions on each birthday, which allows me to see what I have accomplished in the year since my last birthday. These reviews keep me grounded and focused.
4. Make them personal: To understand your resolutions, you must first understand what you are hoping to achieve. For example, let’s say one resolution is to lose weight. You want to exercise 3x a week and follow a more plant-based diet. Your initial resolution might be to lose a couple of clothing sizes, but the real reason is that you want to be healthier and happier in your body. You want to feel better about yourself. By drilling down and making your resolutions personal, it will help you to stick to them longer as opposed to just looking at them at surface level.
5. Give yourself grace: If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I am big on grace. Life is going to throw you curveballs and all you can do is try and catch them. Last year, I wanted to continue going for my morning walks, and I got sick in December of 2022, traveled for work the first week of January, and came back with Covid. It took me months to feel like myself, the exhaustion, the brain fog, fatigue, was real. Between work and being sick last year, I wasn’t always consistent with exercising, but I tried the best that I could, and will try again this year.  Some things will be out of our control, but that’s ok we just need to keep trying.

    The New Year is a time filled with hope and the belief that this year will be better, but I believe that we can keep that hope alive all year round. You have the ability to change your life whenever you wish. I hope that these tips help you in the new year and this will be your best year yet!! I am wishing you all joy, health, and safety in this coming year!