Disclaimer: this post may contain affiliate links. It means that if you make a purchase through the links mentioned in this blog post, I may get a commission. I only recommend and link products that I personally like and use.
Easy New Year’s resolutions, urgh, Julia, are you kidding? I know setting New Year’s resolutions can be exhausting, hard and even pathetic. We tend to be extremely positive when the new year is approaching, we have high hopes and promise ourselves “next year will be my year“. And then a few weeks, or if you’re lucky, a few months later we return to our previous patterns blaming ourselves for failing. And then the cycle repeats over and over again. But how to avoid it? How to actually achieve your goals and don’t feel like a failure? How to set easy New Year’s resolutions?
Well, don’t worry. I got a list of easy New Year’s resolutions that you can put on your own list for 2023 and I even prepared a few tips and tricks on how to create the right resolutions.
How to create the right resolutions?
Resolutions are basically the goals and goals have to be S.M.A.R.T. It means goals have to me specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. Moreover, goals have to have practical steps and description about HOW you’re going to achieve them. This is how you create easy New Year’s resolutions.
So, to create easy New Year’s resolutions, my advice is:
- Set concrete and specific goals. Do not write down “I will lose weight” instead write down “I will lose 15 pounds by the end of summer 2023”. It is more specific and gives you a realistic timeline.
- Ensure your goals are indeed realistic. If you have $500 in your bank account, your resolution of becoming a billionaire or even a millionaire in 2023 is highly unrealistic. At the end, you will feel broken and upset when you will not reach your goal. So instead write down realistic goals whether it is your finance, weight, new habits, the books you want to read etc.
- Write down all your goals, resolutions and under each of them write down concrete steps to achieve your goals. What are you going to do? How? When? How many times? It is incredibly important for your success to have a plan.
- Check in constantly with your progress. I recommend to have either a physical tracker in your notebook or an app like HabitBull which I really like.
- Have a daily, weekly and monthly to-do list to ensure that you’re on the right path.
- Reflect back every day, week, month and quarter on your progress and adjust your plan and to-do list.
One of the examples from my personal easy New Year’s resolutions is “I want to live a more creative life and I will do it by making art every week; learning about art history, cinematography, literature, fashion for at least 2 hours every week and by exploring the city, neighbourhood and museums at least once a month“.
In order to make sure that at the end of the year all your resolutions are checked as “complete”, you need to understand that resolutions are your goals and in order to achieve the goals, you have to take practical steps daily or weekly. Those steps are your habits. If you want to learn how to create new habits read my blogposts How To Build New Habits and How To Improve Your Lifestyle in 365 Days.
How to keep the resolutions?
Sometimes life happens and we can lose our motivation or sense of purpose. And it’s ok. What you have to do when it happens is to give yourself some time to relax, possibly reflect and then go back on track.
Buy a special journal for your goals, resolutions, dreams and write down everything you want to achieve in 2023 or in life. Write down what inspires you and what is your WHY. Why are you doing this? Why is this important to you? Why do you want this?
Additionally, create a realistic mood board either in the notebook itself or on a piece of sheet and hang it somewhere you can easily see it.
In the case of uninspired mood emergency, ensure the following:
- You have a list of the concrete goals for 2023 and steps you will take to achieve them
- You have your WHY. Reread it every time you feel uninspired, demotivated or unproductive.
- You have your visual guide aka mood board to keep you motivated and inspired
- Create an inspiring playlist to cheer you up. Read my blogpost The Ultimate Boss Bitch Playlist to get some inspiration.
- Create a YouTube video list with motivating videos, people who inspire you or TedTalks.
So what resolutions to set?
In my blogpost about improving your lifestyle in 365 days, I talked about the importance of having the areas of improvements like health, finance, hobbies, relationships etc. I think similar is applicable to your easy New Year’s resolutions. You can define the areas yourself or choose from the list I made below or in the blogpost I mentioned, and choose about 3 to 5 resolutions per area.
Do not choose too many resolutions, the chances are you will feel overwhelmed and too stressed. As regular people we only have 24 hours a day and most likely no team behind us or help from others. So choose wisely…
Health
- Avoid sugar, salt, coffee, and/or alcohol an X amount of weeks or months in 2023
- Exercise X* amount of time per week
- Go on a walk in the forest or park once a week
- Drink your water every day
- Replace coffee with tea or decaf coffee once a week
- Take the vitamins
- Go to a yearly check up
- Watch your eating patterns
Here and further on X stands for a certain amount or number, replace it with your own number.
Relationships
- Go on a special date every month with your partner like coffee date, picnic date etc.
- Improve certain areas of your relationships
- Surprise your partner with a special gift
- Say “I love you” more
- Have honest conversations more often
- Express your feelings honestly whether it’s affection or frustration
- Set boundaries, give each other space
Social life
- Go to X amount of concerts
- Visit 5 local museums
- Explore your town once a month, pretend to be a tourist
- Make X new connections
- Go to the social events X amount per month
Career
- Get promoted
- Negotiate a higher salary
- Change a career
- Read X amount of books focused on your niche or career
- Update your LinkedIn profile
- Disconnect from your work (mindset) once at home or after your work hours
Finance
- Set a monthly budget and follow it
- Save 10% of the earnings
- Learn about investing and build the portfolio
- Learn about personal finance
- Save X amount of money
- Spend less money on X, Y, and Z
Friends and Family
- Spend X amount of time with the family
- Have a dinner with your family or friends once a month
- Invite friends for Friendsgiving
- Host a party
- Host a game night with friends
Spiritual Life
- Meditate X times a week
- Write morning intentions
- Go on a walk every Sunday to destress
- Try affirmations
- Journal every day
- Start a gratitude journal
Lifestyle
- Try a new haircut
- Redesign your place
- Declutter your home every 3 months
- Disconnect from online world for a few weeks
- Volunteer twice a month
Education
- Learn a new skill
- Take X free online classes in a year
- Read X amount of non-fiction books
- Dive into a new field opposite of what you know or do
Hobbies
- Cook one new dish every week or month
- Create a video about favorite 2023 moments
- DIY a gift
- Crochet or knit a sweater or a scarf for yourself
- Make a scrap book with the best memories from 2023
- Grow your own garden
Read more:
31 self-reflection questions for October
Reclaiming myself. 5 things I learned.
Creating authentic life and personal motivation
