Alternatives to resolutions can shift our approach and can ultimately make achieving our goals more likely to happen.
Options for creating “resolutions”:
1. Reflection and Gratitude
Before setting new goals, spend time reflecting on the past year. Reflection has been shown to accelerate our learning and performance.
Acknowledge your accomplishments in the past year and express gratitude for what went well. This sets the stage for positively creating new goals by building on past accomplishments.
2. One-Word Intentions
This is becoming a popular alternative to resolutions. Selecting a single word that encapsulates what you want to achieve or focus on during the year serves as a guiding principle, theme, or North Star for the new year ahead.
(BTW, my word for this new year is ENRICH – with thanks to Calean for allowing me to adopt his word.)
3. Mind Mapping
Use a mind map to visually organize your thoughts and goals, creating a comprehensive plan for the year. I enjoy creating mind maps, as they often lead to ideas that I might not have thought about or considered before engaging in this creative process.
Research has demonstrated that our best ideas are often adjacent to our obvious ones.
4. Vision Board
Like mind mapping, creating a vision board with images, quotes, and symbols that represent what you want to achieve enables us to visualize our goals.
Visualization is a powerful technique for achieving goals because if we can see them, we can achieve them, as the saying goes.
5. Start/Stop/Continue
These 3 simple words can provide a helpful framework for determining what you’d like to stop doing, what you’d like to continue, and what you want to start doing.
6. Habit-Forming Approach
BJ Fogg has written in his Tiny Habits book: small, consistent changes can lead to significant improvements over time.
Think of something you’d like to accomplish and break it into tiny, manageable components that you can do consistently. That’s how new habits and behaviors are formed, and it is a sticky process, meaning that the new behaviors are likely to stay.
What new habit would you like to embrace this year and how might you start with one tiny shift?
New Year, New Approach
The key to successfully achieving goals is choosing an approach that resonates with you and aligns with your values and preferences. Embrace a mindset of experimentation to see what works best for you.
What alternatives to resolutions will you commit to trying in this new year to achieve what you want, personally and professionally?
And if you need additional assistance and accountability, hire a coach! I’m here to help!
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