10 Tips for Creating & Keeping New Year’s Resolutions

10 EASY tips for creating and keeping New Year’s Resolutions. Breaking down how to set realistic goals for the new year of 2019 & how to get them to stick!

Happy New Year!! I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the start of 2019! I know I am definitely excited for what is in store for this year. This new year has me feeling so blessed & so inspired. I love this time of year & really use it to reflect on things that I’ve done, accomplished, what happened & what I want to accomplish for the year ahead. With that said, I thought that I’d talk a little today about setting New Year’s Resolutions & how to keep them!

Yesterday, I sat down with a hot cup of peppermint tea, surrounded by my manifestation crystals, & an open page in front of me. I basically just wrote a thank you letter to myself in reflection of the past year. I think reflecting is such a profound thing to do. Even for me, I feel so lucky to have this blog which takes me back to specific moments such as my 2017 Reflection post last year. I was in a completely different mindset & space last year, not to mention a different country as well! It’s crazy what a year can do & what growth it can bring.

Although the new year can bring upon so many positive things & growth, I think many people struggle to keep their minds free of negativity. Feelings of disappointment may sneak in when remembering the goals you may have set for this past year. Maybe you didn’t achieve any of them. Maybe you didn’t even stick to 1 for longer than a month. It’s easy to feel down if you focus on the things you didn’t get to accomplish.

But then again, it’s only one year.

Maybe you didn’t get the job promotion of your dreams. Maybe you didn’t make 1 million dollars. But guess what, I didn’t either. But those also aren’t the goals I set for myself for 2018. Setting goals or intentions or resolutions is apart of self-growth & development but you also have to have a plan. You just can’t have a goal of accomplishing something really big like making a million dollars without an action plan.

Figure your plan out by reflecting. What did you do good this year? How can you improve? What were some of the highs you had this year? Any lows? How do you feel about yourself? How do you WANT to feel about yourself? What can you do now to make a difference in the long run?

Give yourself time to reflect.

Creating goals can be overwhelming. Even the word “goal” can be overwhelming for some. If you’re someone who thinks the word “goal” is intimidating…forget it! Even the word “resolution” carries a lot of weight to it. Consider them intentions!

Last January, I started my year off setting a daily intention for the entire month of January. I wrote about it here on my blog & it’s one of my most popular posts! People want to be better. We want to improve. We want to grow.

Intentions can help you do just that. Setting intentions is a simple yet effective way to accomplish things without letting yourself feel “down”. When looking ahead to 2019, that is how I pictured my “goals”…I pictured them as intentions.

I came up with a list of intentions for both my personal life & my professional life. Some of my personal intentions for 2019 consist of learning, growing, healing, & communicating more effectively.

New Year’s resolutions should not be intimidating, they should not make you feel unaccomplished, they should not be overwhelming. They should be uplifting, motivating, & inspiring.

10 Tips for creating & keeping New Year’s Resolutions

1. Use “I will” statements. “I will” statements hold a lot of power. They hold you & you only, accountable for what happens in your day, in your week, in your month, & in your year.
2. Write it down. I am a HUGE believer of writing things down.
3. Repeat what you wrote, OUT LOUD. And believe yourself when you say it. If you don’t believe in what you are saying, who will?
4. Think about why the specific intention/goal/resolution is important to YOU. Does it empower you? Will it boost your confidence? Will it make you a better person?
5. Create tangible goals. It’s wonderful to dream big, but sometimes those big dreams can seem overwhelming. What can you achieve now in order to build up to that big goal or dream?
6. To follow #5, break those big goals up into smaller goals. What can you accomplish this week or month that will help you in the long run.
7. Be specific & measurable when it comes to your intentions. Maybe you have a goal of traveling. Where are you traveling, when are you going, who will you go with, how long will you stay, what will you do there, how will it make you feel? Think of it all!
8. Have an action plan. How will you accomplish what you set out to do. Great, you have an goal, how will you bring it to life?
9. Break your intentions into categories: personal, professional, creative, relationships, self-development, etc.
10. Be kind to yourself. If you don’t accomplish everything, there is always next year. There is ALWAYS room for improvement no matter where you are at in life. If you thought you’d be in a different place this time last year, give yourself some grace. Life is about growth. There is no such thing as perfection.

New Year’s resolutions should be enjoyable & exciting.

I know I had a really wonderful time thinking about my intentions for this coming year. I have some really good ones that I can’t wait to explore. A few things that I’m really excited about is following an intuitive plant based diet, creating a consistent mediation practice, learning reiki, reading more, being more mindful & growing this blog!

I have a feeling that 2019 is going to be such a fantastic year! In a world that is all go-go-go, let’s all try to be present & be aware of ourself & others throughout this year. There are opportunities for growth everywhere we look.

Do you have any resolutions? If so, I’d love to hear in the comments below!