Setting Goals and Intentions for Sustainable Change

It is time to celebrate all the good (and even the bad) that has come with this year.

Acknowledge it.

Appreciate it.

Don’t forget it, but also don’t fixate.

This is the moment to take note, reassess, move forward, and start anew.

The sun is rising on a new day, a new year. Shining upon new opportunities.

The Real Problem with New Year’s Resolutions

The start of a new year is such a great time to start something new energetically because we are leaving behind last year and stepping into a new one - we are in a transition period. You can truly do this at any point in the year, though! Starting on a Monday or on the first of a new month can give you that same feeling of transition and starting something anew. I’ve even heard of people doing it on their birthday. Change can start any time.

I know a lot of people don’t like the phrase  “New Year’s Resolutions” because it’s never worked for them. I felt that way for a long time too. For many years, setting goals at the beginning of the year only led to eventually failing at those goals.

Here’s the truth: it’s not the resolutions that don’t work. It’s that we give up on them. We give up on ourselves. We stop showing up because we think we’ve failed after only a few slip-ups. We only fail because we stop trying.

I started to truly live a life that I love once I shifted my mindset and decided to take action to change habits, thought patterns, and lifestyles that were creating negativity and discord. Over the last few years, setting New Year’s Resolutions has helped me make major improvements in many areas of my life. They have been a tool for getting my life on track with my goals and dreams, leading me to a more intentional and aligned life. That’s why I want to share with you some tips and tricks for making resolutions work for you:

Mindset is Key

I’ve been able to enact so much change in the last five years because I approach every single new habit through mindset and committing myself to stepping out of my comfort zone. Changing my mindset and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable has transformed my life. Mindset is key to creating sustainable changes. Our mindset is created by our motivations, emotions, and values, so it’s a vital place to start when looking to create sustainable change.

One of the first mindset changes most of us need to begin with is simply believing that we are worthy and capable of change. If we don’t start there, most of us will try to change, get overwhelmed, mess up a few times and then decide that it’s just too hard. We aren’t capable of change. We’re too broken. Sound familiar? I know I’ve been there so many times, but I’m here to tell you that those thoughts are not true. It’s all in your head! If you continually show up, despite any missteps, mistakes, and failures along the way, you will build the power of resilience. Resilience is like fuel to the fire for change.

When we believe that we can change, we remove one more obstacle to a better life.

When we believe we can change, it’s easier to get up when we fall.

When we believe that we can change, we stop believing that life happens to us.

When we believe that we can change, we take back the power to recreate our lives.

So before you do anything else, work on your mindset. Embrace and believe that you are capable of change. Accept that you will have slip ups, but that doesn’t mean you have failed. Get back up and keep moving forward toward who you want to be.

Practical Tips for Sustainable Change

Here are some tips for setting yourself up for success when making your goals and intentions:

1. Make a Visual Reminder

Hang a visual reminder of your goals and intentions where you will see it every day. I hang mine on my bathroom mirror as a concrete, tangible reminder of my goals that I look at each and every morning. I have a free template for an intentions sign that you can download here to get started.

2. Set Attainable Goals

Set yourself up for success by starting with more specific, smaller changes that are easier to keep up with. Nothing big changes without lots of small changes.

3. Set Big Picture Goals

Include some big picture, forward-thinking goals to give a larger purpose and vision to it all. These goals are likely to change as you change. My big goals have all changed since I first started doing this years ago. I originally thought I wanted to be working at a big design agency, but that totally shifted. Now I’m focused on running my own studio and launching my shop.

4. Categorize Your Goals

Categorizing your goals helps give you a macro and micro view and diversifies the goals from one another. I really like doing my goals this way because when I first started, I had so many pain points in my life that I wanted to address. Creating these categories for my goals helped me to create the right goals for me. Here are a few examples of categories you might use:

• Long-term Career

• Short-term Career

• Personal Life

• Health & Wellness

• Learning New Skills

• World/Community

5. Word Your Goals with Positives

Make sure the intention behind each goal is positive and the wording reflects that. Don’t say “I am going to lose weight”* - lose is a negative. Instead say, “I will eat healthier and exercise more,” or make it specific with something like “I will eat more vegetables and go to 3-4 fitness classes a week.”

I’m using weight loss as an example here because I know that’s a common goal for so many of us. It was one of my goals for a long time. However, you need to make sure it’s backed by self-love. Are you wanting to lose weight to fit someone else’s ideal? Are you wanting to lose weight because you don’t feel worthy if you don’t? Are you wanting to lose weight because then you’ll be able to love yourself? If your answer is yes to any of these, you need to reevaluate and reframe this. That’s why it’s good to shift your goal from “lose weight” to “be healthier” - it reframes the goal in a way that is backed by self love and wellness.

6. Find the Root of Unwanted Habits

These new goals and habits are often created in response to “bad” habits or coping mechanisms, but we cannot simply replace old habits with new ones. If we want to change a habit, most of us will look at and alter our actions, but that’s only the surface of the problem. We aren’t thinking about the “Why” behind our actions. When we dig deeper into our motivations behind these habits, we see that our emotions, values, and past trauma are the underlying reason for everything that we do. It’s important to first understand the emotional underpinnings of habits we want to change. Figuring out the root of why you do these things is super important if you want to change your behavior.

For example, when I wanted to change my eating habits, I knew for me that eating is a very emotional and comforting act. I know delicious food contributes a lot to my joy. So I created a plan with all of this in mind. I could increase my vegetables while still finding healthy but incredibly delicious recipes.

7. Integrate Goals into your Routines

Figuring out how new habits fit into your daily or weekly routine is helpful for keeping up with them. For example, this year I started going to see a spine center for my lower back pain. They recommended some lifestyle changes to alleviate the pain and exercises to strengthen my core/back. Now, I could just add these to my to-do list and hope it gets done, or I could take it one step further and figure out where in my routine it already fits to set myself up for good follow-through. I figured out that the perfect time to do my core exercises was right before yoga class several times a week. I just had to set up my mat 10 minutes before class so that I could complete the exercises first.

8. Think About Goals that will Support Each Other

Change is interconnected, so creating goals that will help you with your other goals is a great way to set yourself up for success. For example, creating or finding community will support your mental health which will help you stay on track with your goals. Exercising and eating healthy will ensure you feel your best and stay on track. Establishing a morning routine will help you start your day off right.

9. Track Your Progress

I like to do this with my to-do list app, Any.Do. I like it because it allows for recurring tasks, so I can set tasks to repeat every day, week, or month. I wouldn’t have been able to make any of these changes if I didn’t have that tool to keep me on track. You can do this any way that works best for you, like a journal or a tally chart (for example, I like to tally how many books I’ve read on my Goals Sign so I can see how many I read at the end of the year).

10. Find the Tools and Support You Need

Change is challenging, so make sure that you have everything you need to succeed. Find friends and communities that can support you, like a friend you workout with or a class you regularly attend. When my goal was to do yoga regularly, I found a studio near my apartment. When I started meditating, it really helped me to invest in a meditation app that had guided meditations for me to use. It was such a great investment in myself that has really helped me solidify meditation as a regular habit.

11. If It’s Not Working, Change Your Approach

Always, always shift and change your goals as you need. Maybe trying to integrate something into your morning routine isn’t working, so try a different time of day. Maybe it feels too overwhelming to try and read every day, so try 3-4 times a week instead. Maybe you can’t finish a new creative project every single day, but you can commit to working on it one hour each day.

12. Give Yourself Compassion and Periods of Rest

Change takes a lot of energy, and it can be especially difficult for those of us dealing with anxiety, depression, and trauma. Change can be triggering. So please give yourself compassion. There will be time periods throughout the year when you are not actively engaged with your goals and growth, and that’s okay.

For me, I would go for a month or so on a really great streak with my goals, and then for two weeks or more I would totally drop the ball on them. At first I would get down on myself for not following through, and I labelled these periods as “regressions” because I would fall back into my old habits and coping mechanisms. I later realized that these periods were necessary in order to sustain my growth. I needed these periods of rest from the constant goal-oriented drive to prepare myself for the next growth period.

So please don’t give up, even if you haven’t looked at your goals or done anything for them in weeks or months. It’s okay. The most important thing is to keep showing up for yourself, and eventually you will return to a state where you can get back on the horse and keep changing.

*I want to clarify that I am body positive. I do not believe that you have to be a certain body type in order to be healthy or healed. I’m using this example because I know so many of us struggle here with feeling fully worthy in whatever body type we have. I believe in cultivating a positive relationship with food and our bodies in order to feel empowered.

Ready to Make a Change?

Now that I have started coaching, I’m so excited to help you grow. With all the tools, resources, support, and guidance I have gained during the decade of my own healing, I’m here to support you and catalyze your journey!

I’m offering a special highly discounted offer to anyone who is ready to make this change. If that sounds like you, email me with the subject line “I’m Ready!” for a discount on your first three months of coaching with me. Let’s co-create a life that you love and feel inspired by!