New Year New You? Common Challenges in New Year’s Goals and How to Keep Momentum
Be part of the 10% who stick with their goals in 2025.
New Years tends to draw our attention toward renewal and this is often expressed as an increased focus on the things we want to change. Perhaps you and your friends have been talking about the changes you’re going to commit to? Maybe you’ve already been working towards them as the first month of 2025 comes to a close. It’s exciting and motivating to feel like we’ve got an opportunity to start fresh and almost half of us will have set a goal for 2025. However, though enthusiasm is high initially, it quickly declines. In fact, 90% of us “fail” our resolution by mid-February.
Given that we are rapidly approaching that mid-February date, here are 5 tips and reminders for those of you who have set a goal or intention for the 2025.
1. First, I’d like to gently remind you that you don’t have to change anything. For those of you that are just trying to get through your day or have finally found stability and aren’t ready to shake things up yet, that is perfectly okay. Readiness is a key ingredient for success.
2. Break your goal into parts. If you are looking to increase your physical activity, instead of trying to go from 0 to 60, increase your activity only by half of the ultimate goal (e.g., start with working out once or twice a week if your audacious goal is to work out 5 days/week). You want to make your goal achievable and slowly build up the frequency. This allows you to adapt to the increased workload associated with the goal in a manageable way. This approach also gives you flexibility if you need to adjust something without feeling like you’ve already failed your goals for the week. Confidence tends to come after accomplishment, so set yourself up for success by building milestones into your goals.
3. Be flexible! Building new habits and routines takes time, effort, and it is not going to go perfectly. There will be times that you miss a day or a week of your goal, times you fall back into old habits, and when unexpected interruptions such as illness or travel result in temporary disruptions. Planning for this and normalizing it for yourself will help you stay on track long term. If missing a work out is part of the plan, it doesn’t derail us when it inevitably happens. Remember, goals are intended to be a guide and can be changed or adjusted at any time!
4. Focus on the process, not the outcome. Change takes time. When we don’t see big changes after a week or two into our resolution, we tend to get discouraged. So, what you want to focus on instead is the committed action. Take a step back and focus on the growth that is occurring. This helps us see the progress we are making, which is motivating and helps us feel accomplished. Both of these are important to creating sustainable habits and routines. This will help you stay motivated!
5. Do not steal your joy through comparison. Everyone’s journey is different, and it isn’t going to feel good if you are new to spin classes and are comparing yourself to the instructor or a seasoned rider. Focus on YOUR progress and YOUR success! One really simple way to maintain self-focus and stay out of the toilet of comparison is to maintain a record that documents our personal development. Information like, heart rate, pacing, or weight/reps are a nice way to track YOUR progress.
These tools should help you stay in that 10% of people who stick with it so you can accomplish your goals and maintain awareness of the progress you are making every day. And, if you’ve recognized that you could use more support in shifting the underlying patterns that are interfering with your ability to meet your goals, contact me so we can work together so you can reach those audacious goals!
Written by Meghan Ingstrup, R.Psych