Keeping a New Years Resolution is HARD

When’s the last time you set a New Years Resolution and stuck to it for the entire year? 

I’ve successfully done this ONCE. When I was 18 my New Years Resolution was to be a Vegetarian for an entire year. I DID IT! I added fish back in a few years later and have continued being a Pescetarian to this day. 

I wanted to be a Vegetarian for a really long time and never really liked meat that much anyway. So if your New Year’s Resolution is something like that, that you really want and isn’t a HUGE change to you, I think it could be possible to stick to it. 

90-Day Goals Are More Realistic

I think the better and more realistic option is to set goals every 90 days. You’ll accomplish them much faster and you won’t have the pressure of sticking to something for an ENTIRE year. 

Track Your Goals

I use the Push Journal to define and track these goals. Here’s a little break down of how I do it and how I use the journals.

Grab the Push Journal here!

Rate the 10 Areas of Life

First, I’ll look at 10 different areas of my life and I rate each area on a scale of 1-10. (All the areas are listed in the journal).

Whichever area scored the lowest, is the one I need to focus on the most. I know if I improve that area, it’ll make me significantly happier. If I hadn’t done this and decided to work on an area I’m already happy in, then accomplishing that goal isn’t actually going to make me happier. If every 90 days you’re becoming just a little bit happier, imagine where you’ll be by the end of the year. 

Set Your Goals

Okay, now that I know the area that I need to focus the most on, I’ll make 3 goals that will help to improve that area. 

Once I’ve done that I’ll make 7 more goals that can relate to any other area.

All of these goals need to be things I can accomplish in the next 90 days, are written in the present tense, are specific, are in my control, and they have measured. A goal has measure if someone else would be able to say yes or no you accomplished this goal. Also, you have to make sure the goal you make is actually in your control. You can’t make a goal to say, get promoted, because you don’t have control over that. 

What's It Going to Take to Accomplish?

Now you’re going to look at all of your goals and decide what they will require. They should all either require time or money, or both. Write out how much of each, each goal will require. 

Set an 11th Goal

When you have these numbers, you’re going to make an 11th goal. This goal should be something that helps to knock over MOST of your other goals. 

Break Down Your Goal Into Action Items

Once you have this 11th goal, you’ll write out every single thing you need to do to accomplish that goal. Now, break all those tasks into 10-minute tasks. If it’d take longer than 10 minutes, you need to break it down into a smaller task. Now that you have all your 10-minute tasks, I like to put them in rough order of what needs to be done first, next, etc.. At this point, I’ll usually put them all on a Trello Board so I can easily see them all, rearrange them, and be able to access them anywhere (phone or computer). 

You'll Probably Accomplish Your Goal Before the 90 Days!

Now all you need to do is focus on completing 3 10-minute tasks a day. Just 30 minutes a day to slowly inch towards your goal. Usually, before the 90 days is up, I’ll of completed the goal, and it’ll of caused a lot of the other goals to happen. 

The Push Journal explains this much better than I’m explaining it, but hopefully, this gives you an idea of what it’s all about. 

What do you think about 90-day goals vs year-long resolutions? Comment below!

Love,

Azalee