Time is passing by, and it does so at a speed we have never seen before. We are currently approaching the end of 2024 after travelling through for more than 360 days. Similar to a “birthday’s make-a-wish,” individuals have new hopes for their future in welcoming a new year. They attempt to make “New Year’s Resolutions.”
People make New Year’s resolutions by compiling a list of their goals for the upcoming year. It’s the mixture of the past reflection and future hope that people believe will deliver change in their lives.
Why is making New Year’s resolutions important?
Making New Year’s resolutions is not just a tradition because by making resolutions, we start the year with goals and determination. Additionally, they give us momentum to:
- Reflect
Resolutions encourage self-reflection and self-improvement. They foster personal growth by helping us to identify areas of our lives that need attention, fixing, or enhancement. - Refocus
Setting resolutions creates momentum for the future. They give us a clear roadmap for the year ahead. By defining specific goals, we know where to focus our energy and resources. - Reignite
The euphoria of a new beginning can foster a positive mindset that can motivate us to accept change for the better.
How to make great New Year’s resolutions?
Many people create plans or resolutions, yet just a few of them create great ones. So, I will give you the effective tips to make a great one. Here’s how:
- Look at your past, present, and future.
- Past: Reflect on what you’ve passed, what you learnt, and what needs improvement.
- Present: Be grateful for what you have now, review your progress, and decide on incomplete resolutions.
- Future: Represent your hopes and joy for a fresh start.
- Never make more than 5 new resolutions.
Focus on what’s most important to achieve first and put more energy into achieving it. - Make sure your resolutions are realistic to achieve.
Set resolutions that are practical and achievable in measurable steps. - Set clear and specific resolutions.
Clear resolutions help you focus on exactly what needs to be done to reach your goals.
Making New Year’s resolutions is very important for our personal growth. However, there are things we also need to know that
Beyond what we expect and plan, there is another thing that is usually missed out of our sights.
So, what’s more important than just creating New Year’s resolutions?
This is the part people usually miss. Something that is seen as unnecessary, yet ultimately essential. It’s about how we can be consistent in carrying out each goal in the list of resolutions that we have made.
To make our resolutions work completely, we must do our resolutions consistently. To be consistent, I have created the following basic recipes:
- Set our mindset first—Always remember that our mindset is crucial. Make sure we have the proper mindset before doing anything to ensure that our plans can go smoothly. Adopt the mentality that if we do resolutions, we’ll be one step closer to our success. Period.
- Start with what is most important and urgent—After making the list of goals, arrange them based on the urgency and importance level. Then start with what is most important and urgent first.
- Ask for support—Surround ourselves with our support system that always encourages and supports us to achieve our goals. People who won’t judge us yet will give us some constructive feedback and congratulate our success sincerely.
- Divide your goal into small milestones—Sometimes, achieving a goal could seem exhausting psychologically. To make it easier, break down the goal into some small milestones.
- Build habits from each of our resolutions—By setting specific, actionable resolutions, you can create or break habits that lead to long-term changes.
- Stay adaptive—There will always be flaws in our endeavour to achieve goals. All we need to do then is make some adjustments. Thus, being adaptive and flexible can help us to keep sober if things don’t go as planned. The key is persistence, not perfection.
- Reward your achievement—Never miss out on congratulating ourselves whenever we have achieved our goal, even if it is just a small accomplishment. And don’t forget to reward ourselves when we have achieved our main goal. By doing that, psychologically we keep our spirits up and keep our mental state in good condition.
- Measure your progress—Keep measuring the progress because it will help us to know how far we are processed, what small goals or milestones we’ve achieved, what challenges we’ve faced, and what we’ve learnt from our journey so far.
To help you remember these essential recipes, just memorise that the key is MISS HARM: Mindset (M), Importance (I), Support (S), Small Milestone (S), Habit (H), Adaptive (A), Reward (R), and Measurement (M). I also summarise this topic in an infographic below.
We can better accept our flaws when we make New Year’s resolutions. We shall therefore take the required steps to get better going forward. However, sticking to a consistent implementation of resolutions is far more crucial than just making them. Therefore, in order to improve, we should never allow ourselves to remain weak and unmotivated. Let our spirit for change ignite for good!
