New Year’s Resolutions and Setting Habits
Every year, as I head into December, I begin an introspective journey of reviewing the past year and getting myself aligned for the next year to come. Taking time for alignment can keep me grounded as I go through the year, and every quarter I try to check back in with myself. I usually begin by simply thinking of the past year, I then go back and read all of my journal entries from the year, and finally end by identifying what I want for the next year in a session of habit setting.
Since many have lost faith in New Year’s resolutions, I wanted to share the details around setting habits that I have found and developed over the last number of years. The idea is to take your goals from general to measurable to habitual.
First, you can begin where most of us begin, with general goals. These can be what we usually equate to New Year’s resolutions and can feel like more of a dream – a surface level wish even. Think on the person you would like to become, think on the gaps in your life, or the small things that have repeatedly come up through the year. This can be as simple as wanting to have more leisure. So, the general goal would become, “I want to travel more”.
The next step is to find a way to make the goal measurable. Many stop here, and there is nothing wrong with that. I chose to take one step further, but still understand this step as an important stepping stone. If I want to travel more as a general goal, I can give that goal more direction by making it measurable. The goal now can transform into ”I want to take four trips this year”, or “I want to travel once per quarter”.
The final step is more of a bridge between the general feeling of your initial goal and the specific measurable point. Building a habit around your goal is what builds that bridge. For the main example of travelling more, and therefore aiming to travel once per quarter, you can add the habit of saving X amount of dollars each month, to allow the funds for travelling at the end of each quarter.
Each piece – general, measurable, and habitual – supports one another and are important. I like to visualize a pyramid formed from this process of habit setting. Beginning with your general goal is how you build the base and foundation. The emotional “why” and desire is easily wrapped up in that general goal. Then you move to the very tip of the pyramid, being your specific measurable point, the “what” exactly. Lastly, the real body of the pyramid comes in from that bridge of a habit. It connects your base to your tip and gives you “how” you will get from a general goal to the specific measurable point. And now you have a full-fledged opportunity to make change.
As we take our first steps into the new year, my hope is that we all find ways to manifest new things in our lives. Hopefully the process I have found and tailored can be found and tailored by others, to help meet these New Years’ Resolutions once and for all.
Taylor Ruby's 