Happy New Year! With the busy holiday season winding down, the start of the new year allows us to take the time to focus on ourselves and naturally the topic of New Year's resolutions comes up. While exploring New Year’s resolutions, we usually take the time to reflect on our past year and areas we want to grow and better ourselves. With this quick read, you can work on setting realistic and achievable goals for yourself to make sure our New Year’s resolutions will be consistently followed through to our best ability.
Here are some tips for creating resolutions that prioritize our mental health:
1. Break down your goals into smaller, more manageable goals:
By breaking down our goals, we give ourselves the opportunity to reduce feeling overwhelmed with one large goal. For example, if our resolution for the upcoming year is to go to the gym, that goal can be fairly vague and it can feel overwhelming with not knowing where to start. To break this goal down into smaller goals, you can create weekly goals such as researching for a gym and finding 2-3 gyms you would like to try. You can also research if you would like to go to the gym or workout classes or both. Starting off with smaller goals allows us to slowly dip our toes into something new and be excited about this change rather than feeling overwhelmed with having no idea where to even begin.
2. Focus on progress, not perfection.
Focus on the journey not on the result. We want to strive for progress rather than aiming for perfection and reward yourself for the progress you made. For instance, if your goal is to go to the gym five days a week, but you only went two days to the gym, acknowledge that the two days you went to the gym were more than before you started trying to start going to the gym more often. The way we talk to ourselves can foster a positive and realistic outlook and contribute to a healthier approach to both mental health and success in meeting our New Year’s resolutions.
3. Focus on one day at a time.
Taking it one day at a time allows us to be intentional with our actions and be more in the “now” as opposed to worrying and focusing about the future or past, which can often be overwhelming, create stress and can lead to us being hard on ourselves. By adopting a more “focused on the now” mindset, we can set realistic expectations for ourselves and practice giving ourselves grace if we have an “off” day.
4. Practice self-compassion and flexibility
If a particular resolution is causing significant stress or negatively impacting your well-being, practice flexibility and allow yourselves to reevaluate and adjust your goals as needed. Resolutions are not meant to be concrete, they can be flexible and adjusted to improve consistency and motivation. With flexibility, the topic of self-compassion comes into play. Don’t be hard on yourself if you do need to change your goal slightly or change the whole goal. Be easy on yourself. Acknowledge that setbacks will happen and that’s okay. Just pick back up where you left off.
5. Use your support systems
Achieving our goals can be easier when done with others. Consider joining groups or communities with similar goals to connect with people who can provide encouragement and accountability. You can also try new things with your friends or family who have similar goals. No matter how big or small your New Year’s resolutions are for 2025, remember to show yourself some grace and forgiveness during the times when you may struggle as you work to reach your goals. Please take time over the course of this new year to engage in something meaningful to you, but more importantly, be kind to yourself. You deserve it!
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