The start of a new year is an exciting milestone that we often associate with parties and celebrations, but it also presents powerful opportunities for reflection and recalibration. There is perhaps no other time that creates such a sense of urgency for change. We often make resolutions for the new year but can find it difficult to stick to them as the months go on. How do we gain the clarity we need to spark continuous growth and change in the new year? How do we successfully become the person we want to be?
Here are 5 tips for making (and sticking to) your new year’s resolutions:
1. Focus on what you are grateful for to gain the clarity to make changes.
The beginning of a new year is an important time to take stock of all the good things that have happened over the past year. We tend to think more about all the things we need to change in the coming year, but it is also important to pause and think about what worked, what we are grateful for, and what great things happened last year that hadn’t before.
Having gratitude is not just a nice, feel-good thing to do, it gives you the clarity and strength to make changes. Without it, the new year will likely start to resemble last year’s. Take a moment to reflect on how much you’ve grown in the past year and use that as motivation for more change in the new year.
2. Create a list of who you want “to be” before the list of what you want “to do.”
Our new year’s resolutions tend to look like laundry lists of things we want to accomplish. We want our lives to look different in the coming year, but we often draw from the same parts of ourselves that haven’t been able to achieve these goals in the past.
Before you create a “to-do” list, try making a “to-be” list. Focus on who you want to become as a person, what’s important to you on a soul level, and what really matters to you. Then create a to-do list that supports your to-be list. For instance, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds, your to-do list might look like, “Get a gym membership, carve out an hour for exercise, and work with a nutritionist.” But your to-be list is a list of all the qualities you will need to embody to tackle the to-do list, “Becoming dedicated, disciplined, responsible, and patient.”
Get honest with yourself – are you embodying the qualities you need to accomplish your goals? What would need to shift within you to be what it is you wish to be? When you become the person from your to-be list, everything starts to fall into place, and you naturally begin doing the things you want to do. Focusing on being first is a surer and straighter path to success.
3. Identify what you want to take with you into the new year and what you want to leave behind.
So much of what limits us from our goals isn’t our lack of plans but rather our limiting beliefs, hurt, regret, or victimhood that we drag everywhere we go each year. The best intentions we have are hindered by so much of the baggage we bring from year to year. This is the reason a lot of resolutions fail. We cannot expect to stay the same but have a different life. Eventually, we fall back on old habits if we’re not actively leaving behind certain things.
Delve deeply into the consciousness and thoughts that are holding you back. If a thought doesn’t serve you, stop it from continuing before you do anything else. The behavior follows the thoughts. Of course, this is not something that happens overnight. The work of removing certain beliefs is not easy. It requires intense, constant, and consistent work, but it is both possible and necessary for our growth.
4. Remind yourself that life is short, and choose the important things to focus on.
It’s easy to feel like we have limitless time to accomplish our goals, even though reality tells us otherwise. We tend to live our lives in terms of years, months, or weeks when really we are meant to live life one day at a time. Each day has its own unique energy, and what you can achieve today can only be achieved on this day.
Look at life as a whole and assume you have limited time. What are the most important things to focus on? Are you being distracted by things that you wouldn’t be if you knew you had limited time?
5. Share continuously with others. It’s the only way to achieve lasting fulfillment.
We pursue our new year’s resolutions because we ultimately want to be happier, but the truth is that the only way to have lasting fulfillment is to share continuously without limits from the purest parts of yourself. The only way to truly accomplish our goals is through an element of spiritual work and sharing with others. This is the deepest, most fundamental change we can make. All the meditation and spiritual study are not going to do anything sustainably without pushing yourself to help other people in a consistent way.
As you are making your resolutions, make sure that the most important resolution is to actively share more and more this year.
Nothing is meant to be static and stay the same in our lives. Our relationships, health, jobs – everything is meant to be in constant motion, moving forward and growing and changing. Even if last year was amazing for you, each year is meant to be even better with more Light and blessings. Transformation is not just about accomplishing a list of goals but growing and changing into more sharing, kind, and happier people. Reframe your resolutions and goals as a way to bring Light into the world and to become the person you are meant to be.
