The end of 2018 is approaching quickly! And with that, comes a slew of resolutions that have a small chance of lasting until February.

Last year, I managed to keep up with most of my resolutions, but not all of them lasted long. I have recently realised that I made each resolution for a reason. While they can be hard to follow through on, I made them to make help make myself the best version of me I can be.

So this year, I am determined to keep up on these resolutions I have set for the new year. For 2019, I have set four goals that I want to focus on:

Making these resolutions is the easy part. The hard part is implementing them, or at least so you would think.

While it looks like I threw together a list of things that I want, I actually put a lot of thought into this. Here is my step by step process of creating my new year goals:

Step one: Think about the reasons why you want to achieve this goal

Now, I don’t mean just a reason like, ‘I want to be healthy’ or ‘I just want to’. I mean really think about why this is something you need to do, what parts of your life will benefit from doing so. In other words, it’s important to think about why you want to achieve a goal, not just that you want to achieve it.

For instance, even though, ‘read more’ sounds like a very vague goal. I want to read more because reading is a skill that can be built up. Studies have shown that the more often you read, the quicker you become at reading and understanding texts. As an aspiring law student, I know that my work load will contain mass amounts of reading. I want to read more so that I can keep my brain sharp during this gap year in order to have a smooth start at law school.

Before finalising a goal, I went through for each one of these and created a ‘why’ behind each goal. Conceptualising why I need to do something or achieve these resolutions has already motivated me to start taking productive steps towards keeping them.

Step Two: Make an action plan

The second thing I did after conceptualising my goal, was to start making an achievable action plan. When I read tips on how to keep new years resolutions, people all say the same thing: make your goal something achievable.

While there is some truth to this word of advice, I think that it’s not the goal itself that isn’t achievable, it’s lacking an action plan that allows you to achieve it.

For instance, last year one of my goals was to work out more. Well I think a huge reason why I failed at maintaining this goal, was I didn’t set an achievable action plan and I didn’t know where to start.

This year, I made action plans for each goal, and for some of them, I have already started making strides!

One reason I am not drinking enough water is I don’t have a water bottle. I know, who doesn’t own a water bottle!? But this situation has been rectified and my water bottle (which is super cute by the way) is in the mail. Really is there any excuse not to drink water now?

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With these steps, it will seem like a breeze to set manageable new years resolutions! Even if you do slip up every once in a while, don’t give up! It’s never a bad time to start good habits.

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” 

Neil Gaiman

From me to you,

Do you have any new years resolutions you are excited about?