Do These 12 Things Instead of a New Year Resolution

Do you have a New Year’s resolution this year? Do you even believing in New Year’s resolutions? Have you done them in the past? Maybe they’ve worked? But most likely, they haven’t worked out so great. I don’t know about you. But I gave up on New Year’s resolutions a few years ago, because I felt I was setting myself up for failure. 

The New Year is a clean slate. So it’s logical to want to make improvements in your life. It’s a time to re-focus back on your life. But, have you ever followed through 100% on New Year’s resolutions? I know I have not. I’m over them. I think they are more a discouraging, then a positive motivator. And so I just I don’t do them anymore. I do love having a word of the year. I talked about this last week. And I think that is a lot of fun, and can really be very powerful. 

But, I’m also going to try something new this year. And I’m very, very excited about it. Instead of making a few big resolutions, I want to make 12 micro-changes. I’ve been reading a couple of books that talk about the power in making small, incremental changes every day. It’s the compound effect. Day after day, your results start to grow. You might not see the end result right away. But then, as you continue to do it, all of a sudden, it just really takes off. The books I highly are Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen. 

Each of these books talk about the power of small, positive changes. And as The Slight Edge says, it’s just as easy to do something that is going to benefit you, as it is not to do it. So this year, I want to have micro goals. It takes about 21 days to really form a habit and have it become part of your lifestyle. So I am going to choose each month for a new micro goal. Things like improving my sleep hygiene, read for 30 minutes a day. Stretch. 

I feel when you take these small bite sized pieces, you’re not setting up this big goal that when you fail, you feel like so defeated and you beat yourself up. It’s so much more powerful than new year’s resolutions.

I would love to hear what you think of this idea and what some of your micro goals are going to be throughout the year. 

Peace and Love!