Unpopular opinion: I LOVE New Year’s resolutions. And before you roll your eyes, hear me out.
I know all the reasons NOT to make them. Many people say that January 1 is just arbitrary (purely based off the calendar) and we might put too much pressure on ourselves to make goals OR worse, we’ll wait until the New Year to goal set, when in reality, we might be ready before then and the calendar is stunting our potential to grow during the rest of the year. Furthermore, many people scramble to set their resolutions before December 31st which is insanity to me, because the holiday season is so chaotic and busy that my brain is mush by December 31st.
Whatever your feelings about the New Year are, mine are this: the new year feels cathartic to me in an inexplicable way (other than the obvious: it’s the first of the year.) And for me, I’ve always made them in a way that feels exciting, not stifling. Over the years, I’ve learned how to better stick to my New Year’s resolutions (and goals, in general), and I’m happy to share that with you today, along with my personal resolutions/goals/intentions for 2025.
I also used to always use New Year’s resolutions to set weight loss goals. For pretty much all of my 20s and admittedly maybe a year or so of my first 30s, every New Year I’d just say, “I’m going to get in the best shape of my life this year and lose X amount of pounds!” What I didn’t realize was this: A goal without a plan is just a dream. (I didn’t coin that phrase, by the way.) I’d set this typically lofty goal and never really take the time to sit down and formulate a plan. And when I did start making plans, they weren’t thorough, they didn’t have a great foundation, and I just never set myself up for success.
Atomic Habits: A Gamechanger For Achieving Goals and Creating Life-Changing Habits
Then, I read Atomic Habits a few years ago and my goal setting changed forever. I really recommend the book, I’m actually in the process of re-reading and updating my highlights and notes in the book. I alway find new nuggets of helpful tips in there. Essentially, I’ve coupled his research backed way of goal setting and achieving with what suits my personality and lifestyle.
There are four main takeaways from that book that I’ve really internalized:
- When you set a goal, think not about the goal itself, but the kind of person that would achieve such a goal. And then work on becoming that person by creating habits that support becoming that person and therefore achieving the goal.
- Visualizing and mapping out the achievement of your goal with micro deadlines and tracking.
- Making the habits “obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying” (read the book for a more in-depth explanation – it’s pretty fascinating and effective!)
- Habit stacking (the art of adding new habits right before/after/alongside existing habits so they eventually become a behavioral habit.)
Make Goal Adjustments To Accommodate The Year
The other tip that has been personally helpful for me is looking at the 12 months ahead (or 6 months, or whatever monthly segment you want to look at) and adjust the plan for achieving your goals based on what you have going on during those months. I love to use Evernote or the Notes app on my phone for tracking. For example, let’s say you have an overarching goal of “Losing 20 pounds this year.” But then you look at your year and you have a hernia surgery in February, a lot of travel for work in April, your kids are home for summer, and then you’re renovating your kitchen in October. And these are just the life happenings we know about ahead of time!
So what I’d do here is I’d commit to sticking to my formulated goal plan (aka setting up habits to become the person that would achieve that goal!) during the months when I know I have the time and energy to do so – no ifs, and or buts, just do it! Then, during those other months, figure out different habits to workaround the obstacles.
Let’s continue with my example: If you have a hernia surgery in February, maybe you spend February focusing on your diet and developing good routines around that. Then, if you have that plan in place, you won’t get derailed from your goal and can hop right back in March! And so forth… There are so many seasons, stages, and phases of life – you can’t expect to stay on track of your goal 24/7, it’s a recipe for failure!
Last but not least, don’t be afraid to pivot. Don’t feel ashamed when you don’t accomplish a goal (we can’t achieve all of our goals, after all.) Look back at your plan, assess and reassess, and see if it’s a goal that a) you still want to achieve, b) if it’s attainable with your current season of life, and c) adjust it with perhaps a more thorough plan, a different plan, or adjust the goal itself. Typically, I’ll set a calendar reminder at the end of each month to spend 15 minutes to do this “assessment.” Sometimes, I decide a goal I set isn’t even a priority for me and I ditch it!
My 2025 New Year’s Resolutions (and my plans to achieve them!)
Now on to the good stuff: my resolutions! I’m going to share the short and sweet version of my plans to achieve each goal/resolution, for further inspiration. However, my word of the year is SLEEP. I think that if I can get better sleep, I can become better. So sleep is my #1 priority for 2025.
1. Get 7-8 hours of sleep every night.
Someone who gets 8 hours of sleep a night goes to bed earlier. To go to bed earlier, I plan on being more strict with my kids’ bedtime so that by the time I’m down with the nighttime routine, it’s 8:15pm and I can have that “time” to myself to do whatever I want (watch a show, catch up on my phone, etc.) Also, I will set a timer for 9:00pm and deploy the “5 second rule” from Mel Robbins. This will ensure that I’m in bed by 9:15pm with my magnesium and a good book (see my book-related resolution.) Lights out at 9:45pm.
To start, I’m going to set the goal for 9:30pm – 9:45pm – 10:15pm and work my way up to that 9pm goal. Since my previous bedtime was 11:30pm, I know I need a little time to work up to that 9pm bedtime.
2. Wake up at 5:30am for morning workouts.
Someone who wakes up at 5:30am gets good sleep, so I’m already on track with my overall goal of better sleep. To make that 5:30am goal, I will do a few things:
– Put my phone in my bathroom with that 5:30am alarm.
– Set my workout clothes out in the bathroom.
– Program the coffee machine the night before.
– Know my workout for that day (I’m on a progressive overload program so I have a program I follow for 6 weeks.)
3. Read 12 books a year.
To help with this goal, I started a book club with 2 friends. We talk about the book as we read it but also set a date each month to meet and chat about the book. I’d love to read more than 12 books, but I know 12 is more realistic. Having a buddy system for this goal is really effective, and I’m excited to replace a lot of mindless phone scrolling with reading. I especially love this goal because I find that I spend a lot of my “free time” on my phone meal planning, grocery shopping, etc, and while that’s productive, I don’t want my kids to see me using my “free time” on my phone (they don’t know what I’m doing, but they just see me on my phone) – I want them to see me reading, which ultimately will help with their love of reading.
4. Take my AG1 everyday.
I’m going to habit stack this. I’m going to drink this before I pick the twins up from school at 1pm. I’ll make it before I get into the car and sip it on the way to pickup. I found the hardest part about drinking AG1 for me is finding the time to do it and I clearly need a specific time of day that I drink it. But I want to be more committed to a vitamin routine and I love the taste of AG1 and it has everything my body needs.
5. Walk for 20 minutes every weekday.
This is a tough one to accomplish when you live somewhere with cold winters. I’m not interested in walking in freezing temperatures, no matter what my outfit. I hate cold cheeks! So for the winter, I’m going to have to do these on my treadmill. To get myself to do this, I purchased a laptop tray for my treadmill to do work while I walk and based on what I have going on each day, I’ll schedule those 20 minutes in my calendar. I found a laptop tray that’s compatible with the Peloton tread (which I have) and have ordered it.
6. Build a consistent stretching routine.
By waking up at 5:30am, it’ll give me that extra 10 minutes after my workout to stretch. I love stretching after workouts not only because it feels good, but it’s a good habit stack since I’ll already be working out at that time. Waking up in general will set me up for a lot more success during the day, and I am physically inflexible which has caused issues with my pelvic floor, so I’m excited to commit to this this year, now that I’ve really found my stride with fitness over the past year.