By PHOEBE RUGURU
Everybody loves a new beginning. We love the feeling that we are working on a new slate and always for the better. It is why when new years approach we set these new goals and objectives that we aim to achieve, in order to facilitate and fuel the belief that we are going to do better and be better.
But nearly every year, most people find that when the new year dopamine effect fails and the motivation for the fresh start fades, the determination to achieve new goals fades, and more often than not, we fall back to old ways and forget to aspire for our better selves. As this year comes towards its end, below are 5 ways you can catch up with the abandoned goals and shape yourself to better achieve your resolutions.
Remind yourself of ‘Why’
Along with healing all wounds, time can also make us forget our ‘why’. Why did you want to climb a mountain? Why did you want to run the marathon? Why did you want to move to a new city? Why did you want a new job? We often find ourselves paying attention to the tasks and the actions, without paying the same attention to why we want to do these things, or why we even want or need them in the first place.
Part of you remembering and achieving your goals is to look back at them and remind yourself of why you wanted them in the first place. Doing this will renew your sense of responsibility for yourself. Importantly, it will also help you realize if this is something you wanted for yourself or for others. Is it something that you put on your list because it was in line with what others around you were doing? Is it something that you wrote down because it was expected of you? Remembering the why will enable you to reflect on whether your resolutions mean anything to you
Check in on Your Peers
It has been said that people learn more effectively when they are teaching others. The same applies to accomplishing those new year resolutions now hanging by the thread. When you cause yourself to check on your peer’s progress to hold them accountable, you also do it for yourself; after all, you don’t want to be the person who holds others in high regard, and not hold yourself to the same standards.
In addition, checking in on your peers and their resolutions should remind you that you are not the only one working on some goals; community in achieving goals go along way, and you might even find that they have the same goals as you. Your peers’ own experiences and plans might inspire you to get going and perhaps even present opportunities to share knowledge and resources that could spearhead those achievements.
Break it Down
When setting these resolutions, most of us tend to list each goal, but with little attention to the direction of how we are going to achieve them. Some people go as far as to say that when you have a goal but not the broken-down steps on how to achieve it, then it is not a goal, but a dream.
And for the most part, resolutions tend to be dreams, because they capture the aspirational ideals that we aim for. But even the most conceptual goals (such as “Be more present” can be broken down to smaller pieces (listen to meditations for 15 minutes a day). So, if you set high resolutions but did not break it down to smaller do-able steps, perhaps now is the time. You might be surprised at how achievable the resolutions can seem all so suddenly!
Accept Change
When we set our resolutions, we don’t anticipate that we are going to change our minds. Yes, perhaps we are somewhat aware that we will probably abandon some of the goals, but altogether, we assume that our mentality will remain static. But that’s often not the case. Throughout the year, we are exposed to different people, different cultures, different challenges, and much more. These experiences shape us in a way that can alter our life’s purpose, altogether, as well as, subsequently, our resolutions and goals.
When that happens, you should feel perfectly fine to accept it. You can look at your list of your resolutions and embrace the fact that it’s possible and perfectly fine to let go of resolutions or goals that you no longer feel connected to. For this reason, learning to adapt better to situations should probably be a permanent goal on our resolutions!
There is Time
As much as we embrace the beginning of the year as an opportunity for a fresh start, we don’t face the end of it with the same optimism; sometimes the end of the year can seem like the end of things, including time. You may check your list of resolutions and find that you realistically do not have enough time to complete everything that you intended to. And that’s perfectly fine. It happens that we find ourselves chasing after achievements or labels or positions, so much so that we rarely marvel in our own presence and our own fulfilment.
In a world where hyper-productivity and displaying achievements is so prevalent, it is easy to feel like what you have achieved is not enough. When looking at your resolutions, remember to take time to check in on your own happiness. Achieving goals and resolutions can give some motivation and propel your life goals, but it is entirely possible to achieve milestones and still not be fulfilled. It is therefore essential for you to highlight the aspects of your life that make you happy and bring great purpose to your life. To achieve your resolutions, there will always be time. But to make yourself be fulfilled and present, the time is now, and it should always be.
