How to Accomplish New Year’s Goals!

Happy New Year!

2018 has been an amazing year full of lots of adventures. Was your year full of stories? Often, at the beginning of a New Year, people write New Year’s Resolutions and goals, which often fizzle out after a month or two. What are some ways that you can keep those resolutions from completely dying out? Let’s explore!

1. Do a little of it every day

You have a goal, make it a habit. If reading more is your goal, don’t let a day go by without you reading a couple pages. Maybe you want to journal, then at least write a sentence. The worst thing to do with a new goal or habit is to put it off and say “I’ll do it tomorrow!” Every time that happens, it will be easier to put the goal off until another tomorrow the next time. But how do you actually accomplish your goal well?

1. Schedule and implement it

A former music teacher of mine once told me to analyze the things that were habitual in my life and apply them to future goals. She said, your brain memorizes habits and makes them every day occurrences. For example, you brush your teeth in the morning without thinking about it, because you have trained your mind to think: “when I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is brush my teeth.” It’s not really a habit anymore, because you just do it automatically. Another example, have you ever listened to a CD/album so many times that you inwardly start humming the song that will come on next? And then, if you ever hear one of those songs on the radio or anywhere else, your mind begins to line up which songs will be next based on the CD/album from before, right?

My teacher suggested that you do the same with new habits or goals. If your New Year’s Resolution is to play the piano every day, don’t just say you’re going to play every day. Make it a point to play every day after lunch, for example. After lots of repetition, it will be like the song memory, you will eat lunch and automatically think about playing the piano. What happens if I miss a day?

1. Don’t give up, start again

When you miss a day, it’s easy to say “Well, I messed this up, so I might as well give up.” That is not the way goals work. If you mess up, get right back into it! If playing the piano every day is your goal and you miss one day, do it the next day. I have sometimes laid down in bed and remembered my goal and after much sighing and arguing with myself, I’ve gotten up and done it anyway. But even getting up and doing it for two minutes, changes everything. My goal might have been to do something for twenty minutes, but even doing it for those two helped keep the goal in mind. Now, you might not be able to get out of bed to do something, or maybe you didn’t realize you’d forgotten your goal until the next day. Either way, do what comes next. If someone who was trying to lose weight saw that they messed up one day and decided to give up because “they’d obviously ruined their goal,” they wouldn’t lose any weight ever. What if this still isn’t enough?

1. Get an accountability partner

Now, perhaps you feel that you can nail this goal! And you probably can! However, sometimes success is better in our grasp when there’s someone watching your back or running the course with you. An accountability partner (either someone who just checks in on you every so often, or that you report to, or someone who is doing the goal along with you) can be invaluable. When you want to give up, it’s sometimes easy to convince yourself that it’s okay…just this once, right? But, when someone else knows your goal, it’s harder to convince them that you should give up. Accountability partners encourage, sympathize, and ant to help you as a friend. What else should be done?  

1. Pray

One of the most important things, and one that shouldn’t be neglected, is prayer. The connection with Jesus, who cares about our goals and resolutions, is almost more important than anything. God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us through life. When we share our concerns, struggles, goals, and life with Him, we are guaranteed guidance. Don’t forsake fellowship with the Lord. I have found that when I am consistently reading the Bible and consistently praying each day, I have a connection and accomplish my goals much better than when I do not.

Charles Spurgeon says…

“A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to unravel.”

Happy New Year!

Ellen Nolan

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