It is a brand new week. The holiday season is behind you. Now, you begin looking ahead to 2022. A new year full of new opportunities and resolutions. Looking back, did you accomplish everything you wanted to in 2021? What do you want to accomplish in the new year?

Planning: Do Your Research

According to surveys, “80-percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by mid-February.” Why? Well, mainly people fail their New Year’s resolutions because they are not specific. When you’re trying to accomplish a goal, it is easier to walk away and give up when the goal is not specific enough to hold yourself accountable.

Yes, making a resolution about losing weight, getting healthier, reading more, increasing sleep, keeping an area cleaner, and the list goes on is great, but those types of resolutions are most likely to fail because they are not SMART.

You may have heard the phrase SMART before pertaining to goal setting: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely. By making sure each resolution checks off all five words, your resolution is more likely to last and be accomplished. For example, say you want your goal to be “getting healthier,” you want to phrase it in a new way to focus on all aspects of SMART goal setting. One must transform the new resolution to be “I want to exercise for 30 minutes four days a week after dinner so that I have more energy and can improve my overall fitness and health.” This new goal still allows you to “get healthy,” but encourages you to have a plan of action.

Executing: Getting It Done

The hardest part of making a change or achieving a goal is starting. You do not want to make drastic changes if you want these to stick, but rather a gradual transition from a previous way of life in order to be sure that you can accomplish what you want.

Therefore, the SMART goals you made should most importantly be attainable and something you want to strive for and not be discouraging or too challenging. Remember, on average, it takes 21 days to form a habit, so you should begin today.

Guarantee if you keep saying you will start tomorrow, tomorrow will come and that excuse will continue before you realize your resolution was not achieved and then next thing you know it is 2023.

Other Goals

So, you read all about making SMART goal setting and you’re not sure if it’s for you.

Well, I have good news, here are some twists for making resolutions.

Maybe you want to spend the new year focusing on a mantra or quote. This one phrase could help you throughout the year to center your thoughts and feelings and allow you to not solely focus on specific goals, but how that one statement could affect your everyday life. You could choose to live out each day according to that mantra or quote and set your intention.

Another idea is focusing on a word. You can Google popular words or perhaps you have one in mind. One suggestion is to browse Little Words Project website, a brand that focuses on inspiring and encouraging people through the use of bracelets to get some inspiration. This word could be a reminder everyday of how to live your life and make changes to your character. One word is all it takes for you to become your best self.

Finally, you could decide to make a theme for your year. Examples of themes include “The Year of Art” or “The Year of Productivity.” By choosing a theme, you’re able to see what direction it takes you and allows for self discovery rather than strict regiments. For more information about making a theme for the year feel free to watch this video.

Whether you choose to make SMART resolutions or pick a word to describe your new year, I hope your 2022 is whatever you want it to be and allows you to improve as a person and create a positive meaningful change.

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