Are you still working on your New Year’s goals, resolutions, and new habits? A lot of us lose our willpower and momentum and give up by February. It does take a while to make something become a habit. Since January and February are typically less busy than other times of the year, I think this is the perfect time to really focus on New Year’s goals and resolutions, and then by March, you should be well on your way to accomplishing what you set out to do.
Now that it’s February, it’s time to do a little check-up on our goals and resolutions and see how we’re doing and where we need to work a little harder. Today, I’ve got a system for looking at your overall lifetime goals, your goals for this year, and a way to see how you’re progressing so far.
It’s never too late to start on some new goals and resolutions, so if you haven’t already, take an hour or two, read my previous post, How To Plan For The New Year, and get ready to work on improving some things this year. Feel free to print out my free printable, Lifetime Goals Worksheet. Now that you’ve got that done, take a few minutes and read, How To Start New Habits.
For each goal, write out at least a few steps to get from where you are now and where you want to be by the end of this year. Then, for each step, set a deadline or a specific month that you will do each step. For example, if you wanted to lose 50 pounds by the end of the year, divide 50 by 11 months (the number of months left in this year), and you can set as your goal about 4.5 pounds each month, which is about 1 pound a week. That sounds totally doable, doesn’t it? Basically, you just need to take each goal, which can look overwhelming at a glance, and break it down into manageable steps.
You can do this with each goal, whatever it is. If you have a long bucket list of things you would love to do, try doing one or two each month and checking them off. That would be a great year, wouldn’t it? Give it a try and see how much you can accomplish this year. Until I started doing this, I never really did any of the things I wanted to do. I finally learned that I had to give some real action steps to my plan.
When I set goals and plans for my life, I like to divide them up into different life categories. Yours might be different, but here are mine as an example:
- God and Family
- Health
- Finances
- Career/Job
- House/Home
- Personal Bucket List
These life categories help you to picture where you would like to be in the distant future for each category, and then what you need to accomplish this year to help you get there. Then, you break it down to month-by-month steps.
So, use February 1 as a “check-up” day on your New Year’s goals, resolutions, and new habits. Check your progress and see where you might need to work a little harder. Do this each month, checking your goals and revising when necessary, and you’ll be on your way to a great year!
Till next time, have a wonderful day!