How to Set New Year Resolutions Guaranteed to Get Results

The beginning of anything always holds so much promise. An opportunity to begin anew from a more optimistic, fresh, unlimited perspective. All things are possible. We set goals and resolutions in the light of a new year and the dream of a better life and a better self.?

And then, life happens. We get tired, hungry, emotional, overwhelmed. Life deals us heartbreak, betrayals, financial hardships, health scares, and there never seems to be enough time to get it all done. It doesn’t take long for those juicy, brilliant goals and resolutions to start feeling tarnished and heavy. There are so many reasons not to continue. This is one reason why most New Year resolutions are never achieved.

When I was younger, I made a resolution not to make any resolutions, because if most weren’t achieved then why bother? I’m not interested in feeling like a failure. But, over time that just felt like a cynical cop-out. I was missing out on the energy that comes from reaching for something better at a time when we naturally evaluate our current circumstances.

Instead, what I try to do now is to honor my human BEing-ness and ask myself what I want to BE more of, what I want to feel more of in my life. With that over-arching aspiration, finding ways to BE more of that every day becomes more manageable, more achievable, more fun and more thoughtful than any externally driven goal or ambiguous resolution.

Several years ago, I went through a period of some really tough “life happening”. There was a health scare, which led to financial instability, which led to lots of stress and even more conflicts. I noticed that I was being particularly hard on myself, mostly through my self talk but also in what I would accept in life, from others and from myself. Just like everyone, I wanted my life to be better and when I really drilled into it, I found that what I longed for the most was more kindness, which was sorely missing in my life.

Since I can only control myself, I resolved to be kinder to myself. Every day I would ask, how can I be kind to myself? I came up with all kinds of ways to show myself kindness, such as writing out a gratitude list, buying myself flowers, monitoring and shifting my self-talk, having a good cry, taking a long bath. The list is endless. And the result was not only more kindness to myself but towards others as well, which just reflected more kindness back to me. Today, I am surrounded by kindness and notice it everywhere.

It has been said that most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a month (or a year).

The beauty of approaching New Year resolutions in this way is that it gives them stronger staying power and a greater likelihood of long-term success. It gently and consistently nudges us to appreciate our BEing-ness and positively influences our own self-image. This self-image has an enormous influence on our ability to achieve any of our goals and resolutions, so it is imperative to consider it.

This year, my New Year resolution is to BE Inspired. I will make room for child-like wonder and awe. I will arouse my curiosity. I will pay attention. I will spend time in nature and with people. I will reflect. I will allow delight to overwhelm me. I may not experience inspiration every day, but in the resolving to bring more of this into my life, I have offered an invitation, and in that action and awareness, I am confident I will see inspiration over and over all year long.

I hope you will share your 2024 New Year’s resolution in the comments. I am certain I will be inspired by it, and I hope you are too!