What’s a new year without making some resolutions? If you haven’t had success with your resolutions in the past, don’t give up! It can be difficult to make changes in your life, but it’s certainly not impossible. Let’s talk about how you can have success in setting and keeping your New Year’s resolutions.
SMART Goals
You may have heard the acronym “SMART” as a guide for setting goals. To jog your memory, it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. When initially choosing your goal(s), keep this acronym in mind. For example, a common New Year’s resolution is to be more fit. You can make this goal more specific by saying, “I want to run a 10k.” Take it a step further and make it measurable. Running a 10k is already a pretty measurable goal, but you can set mini checkpoints along the way to track your progress, such as running 2 miles at a 9:30 minute pace within the first month. To make running a 10k achievable, you may want to give yourself a reasonable amount of time to train, such as 4-5 months, along with a reasonable training schedule and mile time. In this area, you want to stretch yourself, but not too much that it is unreasonable or unachievable. Now, let’s make the goal relevant to your life. What is your why? Do you want to look better, feel better, beat a previous record of yours, or be more confident? Whatever your reason is, analyze the goal until you have pinpointed your why. Lastly, make sure your goal is time-bound. Set a deadline for running the 10k and schedule out times that you will go to the gym or train along the way. Some of the areas in the SMART acronym may cross over with each other, depending on what your goal is.
Now that we’ve talked generally about how to make a SMART goal, let’s hone in on a couple more areas to help you on your journey.
Planning
Give yourself time to plan. Don’t come up with your goal on a whim. Think of something you truly want to change in your life and have wanted to change for a while. Once you have a SMART goal, schedule out the time and make arrangements so you can accomplish it. Write things in your phone or calendar or whatever works best for you. Imagine 2022 playing out, month by month, and where you want to be with your progress as each month rolls around. For example, let’s say you have always dreamed of starting a business. For each month (or week) of the year, plan what you will do to work on starting a business. Coming up with your business model, getting sufficient funds, designing your website and products, etc. might be some things to consider when you are planning. Be as specific as possible in your plans. Breaking your goal down like this will make your resolution much more reachable and less overwhelming. Also, if there are stumbling blocks you can predict along the way, make plans in advance for how you will overcome these challenges.
Rewarding Yourself
If you are going to push yourself to accomplish something meaningful, that’s amazing! You deserve to be rewarded. Rewarding yourself will help you have something to look forward to while you are putting in the hard work to achieve your goal. Of course, there is meaning in accomplishing the goal itself, but why not throw in an extra bonus for motivation? Your reward could be a self-care day, a ticket to see your favorite artist in concert, a night out with your significant other, a new electronic gadget, or something as simple as getting some ice cream.
“All or Nothing” Thinking
“All or nothing” thinking can be detrimental to your success. This thinking happens when you mess up along the way to reaching your goal, so you decide that you might as well ditch the whole resolution completely. Resist this temptation and don’t abandon the progress you’ve made! You can expect to have some setbacks when reaching a worthy resolution. Small steps and slow progress is better than no progress at all. If necessary, you can always adapt and modify your goal, just don’t give up!
So what will your resolution be? We’d love to know- connect with us on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook @wpinsure. Also, as you begin this new year, let us help you get your insurance in order. We want to maximize your protection at the best rates possible. We look forward to getting to know you! (702)932-3105
