01/08/2022
Succeeding with This Year’s Goals and Resolutions
As the calendar turns to 2022, many of us set new goals and resolutions for the new year. We desire to improve ourselves. We set out to lose those 10 extra lbs., to decrease our spending, to grow our business, or to grow our faith through various spiritual disciplines. The problem is many of these goals and resolutions are dismissed by the middle of January! So, what are ways you can win with your New Year’s goals and resolutions?
1. Know the backstory. The desire to improve comes from a recognition that something is lacking in our life. We no longer want to look or act a certain way, so we desire to make changes. But first, we need to become familiar with how we got into the place where we are today. We do this by looking at the roots of our story. How did we become overweight? What drives us to look at our phone over 200 times in one day? How did we come to numbing out on television and YouTube in the evening? What drives us to overspend? Why do we crowd our schedule to avoid spending time with God? The answers to these questions are found in particular stories of our life that brought about harm, loss, or hardship in our life. Bringing healing to these stories will help our failed New Year’s goals and resolutions. We often fail at our goals because we do not account for the heart motivation behind the change. We make behavioral changes but do nothing to attend to what is underneath the surface of our desires. Set yourself up to succeed this New Years by first knowing the backstory of your goals.
2. Discover your sabotage. Have you ever had this experience? You set a goal and were at 95% completed with it and you just stopped. You tried multiple times and just couldn’t meet your goal or resolution. You ended up getting sick, injured, lost interest, lost energy, or just stopped. Have you ever experienced this? Most of the time when these things happen to us it is because we sabotage our own progress. This may sound strange, but it is true. For many of us, the success of meeting the goal or changing the habit means that we will display our abilities. Positive change will occur and sometimes it’s easier to just not complete it because we know more will be expected of us in the future. This leads us to sabotage our own progress to limit what others and even ourselves believe in us. Our sabotage will prevent people from having further expectations of us down the road. This happens without us realizing it, and we end up preventing our own growth. Behind this sabotage is a backstory related to an event(s) earlier in our life that echoes into the present. For you to win with your goals and resolutions, that sabotage and backstory needs to be tended to.
3. Set realistic goals. Often our New Year’s goals and resolutions are rooted in our dreams of having the perfect body, the best bank account, or the perfect habits. Therefore, we set goals like: lose 50 lbs in 2 months, work out 7 days a week for 2 hrs. each day, run 500 miles in less than a year (especially when you have not run at all and sit on the couch), or read the whole Bible in 6 months while spending 2 hours in prayer every day. All of these things are good healthy disciplines to have within our life. The issue is that the goal leads to exhaustion, burnout, or deprivation. This then leads us to despair and not succeeding with our goals and resolutions. With unrealistic goals, we sabotage ourselves even before we start. As you set your goals and resolutions, ask yourself are they realistic and manageable for your lifestyle? These should absolutely challenge you to grow, but not be unreasonable that they aren’t unattainable. Set yourself up to succeed and grow at the same time.
There are many other ways to help you succeed with your goals and resolutions. These three, however, are often overlooked and not considered when setting growth for the New Year. As you process them and need help, reach out to a trusted friend, mentor, or counselor. Remember goals and resolutions ought to serve you and your relationships with others. They are only tools to help bring about further growth and wellness in your life. May you find much growth and wellness in your life in 2022.
