Five tips for better new years goals
The start of a new year brings an exciting opportunity to set goals and intentions for the year to come. The dopamine induced from declaring new goals can make you feel particularly motivated and it can be tempting to go all in and change everything at once. While this may feel doable at first, it often leads to overwhelm and the common trend of falling off your goals come February.
If you’ve fallen into this pattern before, it can often make you feel like your goals are too hard or that you don’t have what it takes to achieve them - and this is not true. It just means you need to change your process.
Read on for my top five tips to set better goals this year -
1 - Reflect First
Before looking ahead, it’s important to reflect on the year that’s been and check in with the goals you’d set last year. If there were any goals you didn’t achieve - reflect on why this was. Does this goal still feel aligned or is it no longer something you want? If you’d still like to achieve this goal, what did you already try last year and what could you do differently this year?
2 - Get Clear
Imagine yourself at the end of 2025 - how do you want to feel? What do you want to be doing with your time? What do you want your life to look like? There are many ways that you can get clear on this - for example creating a vision board, or writing yourself a reverse letter from the end of 2025, picturing your ideal life at this time. It’s important to check in with your values and identify goals that are truly meaningful to you.
3 - Set Specific Goals
To increase your likelihood of achieving your goals, it’s important to clearly define them. The SMART Goals formula is a great starting point for this as it ensures your goals are:
S - specific
M - measurable
A - achievable
R - realistic
T - time-bound
For example:
Standard goal = I will eat healthier this year
SMART goal = I will eat five different fruits or vegetables every day
4 - Create an Action Plan
An action plan allows you to further break down your goals into smaller steps to create the road map of how you will achieve this across a year. This will help you to identify the weekly and daily habits that are going to contribute to achieving your goals. The sooner you can build habits, the better.
For example:
Bigger goal: I want to eat healthier this year
Action plan:
Step 1 - each Sunday I will dedicate 30 minutes to planning out my weekly meals and place my online groceries order
Step 2 - I will prep ahead a high protein breakfast for weekday mornings
Step 3 - I will cook extra for my dinners so I can take leftovers for lunch
Step 4 - I will swap my afternoon biscuits for a high protein yogurt + fruit
Action plans are important because they create a step-by-step guide of manageable changes rather than going all in, getting overwhelmed and deciding the goal is too hard. An action plan should always be personalised to you and you should feel confident to achieve each step. If you need support with setting out your health goals in this way - that’s where working 1:1 with a practitioner can help. Send me an email if you’d like to work with me.
5 - Check In
Your circumstances and priorities may change throughout the year so it’s important to check in and adapt your goals if needed. You may need to alter your action plan, or amend a goal if it’s too easy or difficult or no longer aligned. The start of a new month can be a great time to do this. Having a regular point of checking in is also important to keep you accountable and consistent with working towards your goals.
2025 can absolutely be your year if you decide to get very intentional about how you spend your time. Wishing you a wonderful year ahead!
Nic x
Disclaimer: this blog post is intended for educational purposes only and does not replace individual medical advice. For more support please always seek the guidance of your relevant health practitioners.