Before you set your 2020 resolution, do this!

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Have you noticed how everyone is talking about setting goals and intentions for the new year? Seems like even my dog has a 2020 resolution to get as many chips as possible!

The New Year always creates this deep desire to set goals and create a new you. There’s something about starting the New Year off with intentions of making all these big changes. But have you noticed how easy it is to set an intention and how hard it is to keep it?

According to a study conducted by the University of Scranton, only 8 percent of people achieve their New Year’s goals. A US psychologist, Joseph Luciani, says that around 80 percent of people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions.

Why do so many people give up on their New Year’s resolutions so quickly?

Some of the key factors in whether someone has success with their New Year’s resolutions has a lot to do with whether they have a system in place and whether they are tracking their progress.

You are also more likely to have success with your 2020 resolution if you create a specific goal that is achievable. It makes sense that if you start to see positive results, you are more likely to keep going!

We all know what happens if you don’t set your goals the right way and you have no results to show for all your hard work… you soon feel disappointment because you didn’t meet your own expectations. You may even try harder and feel overwhelmed because things are not working. Being discouraged in this way can even affect future resolutions and impact all areas of your life.

I wanted to share some tools you can use to help you learn how to reach your 2020 resolutions. Let’s help you have an amazing year and make your New Year’s goals a reality.

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Here are my top tips to help you reach your 2020 resolution:

1. Reflect on the previous year

Something that I implemented this year that has really helped me become more aware of what is working and what isn’t working is the use of a weekly review sheet. You can get access to the weekly review sheet I use by clicking here.

Towards the end of the year, I do a year in review to help me see my biggest successes and what things actually brought me the most joy, abundance and peace. Click here to get the yearly review sheet template.

Reviewing your past is a very important first step in helping you see what helped you have success in certain areas.

I’m often surprised by how much I gain from looking back at my reviews. They give me a glimpse into what worked easily for me business, and I use that information to build upon my successes.

2. Create SMART goals

After you have had some time to brainstorm general ideas for goals, take some extra care about making sure you set SMART goals for 2020.

A SMART goal is:

Specific – Get specific about your goal. Why is it important? State it in specifics.
Measurable – List out a date or number to attain. This helps you measure and track your progress.
Attainable – How can your goal be attained?
Realistic/relevant – What would make achieving this goal possible? And is it worth chasing after this goal?
Time – List a specific date to have this goal achieved by.

3. Write down your goals

There are many ways you can record your goals to help you remember them. You can get a notebook just for your goals and intend for that notebook to just be for this year’s ideas. If you want to get extra fancy, place tabs in your notebook for the categories and devote time to drawing or writing your vision for each category.

Create a vision board by finding pictures and words that describe the feeling you want for each of your goals. This helps you get excited and motivated about each of your goals. Also, it helps to have a visual representation in plain view so you don’t forget about your 2020 goals.

Use sticky notes to help you. A few years ago, one of my New Year’s resolutions included being more conscious of my impact on the environment. I listed off small ways I could leave a smaller environmental footprint. One of my goals was to use reusable bags instead of plastic bags. But the problem was, I could never remember to bring my reusable bags inside the store. So I put a sticky note on my steering wheel. After about a month, the habit was built in, and now I automatically reach for my bags when I go to the store!

Use the calendar on your phone, or get a wall calendar and take some time to write out goals and then baby steps to take. Try to plan out just the first 90 days or so of the year.

Get a white board and put it in your office. List out your five most important goals for the new year. On my white board, I always include my next savings goals, my newest business goal, a home or organizational goal, a personal or health goal, and a relationship goal.

4. Create a plan to help you reach your goals

It’s important to think about how you will achieve your goals. What will help you accomplish them? What people do you need in your life? Who do you need to stay away from? For each of your major goals for 2020, create a simple plan and ask yourself these very important questions.

What actions do I need to take to accomplish this goal?
Who can help me?
How can I track my results?
What will tell me if I am making progress?

I like to think of each of my goals as projects and I am the project manager. There might be materials I need for my project, and people to hire to help me, and steps that need to be thought through and then executed.

5. Think in terms of baby steps for your 2020 resolution

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed as you start to look at these massive projects you are undertaking. As you are setting your 2020 resolution, break down the bigger goal into baby steps. And just dedicate your energy to that baby step for each month.

By breaking your goal down into smaller steps, it helps it feel more manageable and do-able.

For example, if your goal is to start a coaching business in one year (this is just an easy example for me to help you with because it’s exactly what I would do if I was starting a new business for the first time). If a new business is your goal for 2020, your baby steps for each month might look like this:

January – Choose a niche to coach in and announce you are coaching. Put out feelers to people you know to offer practice sessions.
February – Practice coaching sessions with at least three people
March – Ask for testimonials and feedback from your sessions. Develop a price sheet for your coaching sessions. Charge hourly for now.
April – Set up a simple webpage, list your pricing, and include a scheduler on your site (something like Acuity Scheduling or Google Scheduler). Reach out to three more people for practice sessions.
May – Create a business Facebook page for your niche to help people with their specific areas of concern. Join other related Facebook groups and invite people to join your page. Interact with people on the Facebook pages and do live videos to talk about areas of concern and what you do.
June – Attend a coaching conference to build your skills. Practice with three more people. Start charging for your services (if you haven’t already.
July – Guest post on 3 websites. Try sites like Medium or Buzzfeed.
August – Setup an email list with Mailchimp and include a subscribe box on your website.
September – Create a simple group coaching program centered around a theme in your niche and invite people to join for a monthly fee.
October – Setup free business listings on Yelp and Google. Put out a Facebook ad.
November – Send out monthly emails with a blog post to help your group, remind them about your offers and invite them to join your Facebook page.
December – Focus on signing up new clients into packages of 3, 6, and 8 sessions.

6. Keep track of your progress

Whenever you accomplish a task related to your goal, line through it on your white board. And every 90 days, erase old accomplished goals and write new ones.

Also add accomplishments to your list in your phone to help you see progress throughout the year. Keeping track of your 2020 resolution will help you see what you need to eliminate, where you need to place more attention, and show you what activities are helping you flourish.

7. Make tweaks and refine your goals

It’s perfectly normal for your goals to be more general when you first start out. With time, you will start to see what is working and what isn’t working and you can refine your goals.

Generally, I have found there are tasks that seem to just eat away at my time and energy, and then there are things that really pay off. Place your focus on things that bring a more positive outcome into your life. This might mean spending quality time with people who uplift you or mentor you and spending less time with people who gossip or drain you. Also, if you are trying to improve your finances, focus more attention on the tasks that are bringing you more income and eliminate time wasting tasks.

Related: If you are setting financial goals for 2020, then I highly recommend that you check out this post on investing. It’s a favorite with our readers.

What will help you stick to your 2020 goals?

For many, setting New Year’s resolutions almost feels like a joke because it’s very common to be excited about making a change at the beginning of the year and then feel less excited as time goes on. There are many reasons why people don’t stick to their goals, everything from feeling overwhelmed, being too busy, getting lazy or just losing interest.

Sometimes thoughts can also deter you from completing your goals. Unfortunately, all it takes is one negative thought to doubt and question whether this goal is important to you. Those doubts can be enough to make you stop and fall off track completely.

Another reason why people don’t complete their goals is because they forget about them. This happens because you don’t have the habit ingrained in you yet. It takes time and consistency on a daily basis to change habits and routines.

Remember that small daily steps are the key to achieving large goals over time. This is why breaking them down into baby steps and writing them down can help.

Tips to help you stick to your 2020 goals

If you know you struggle with sticking to your goals, think about ways you can help yourself stay on track. Here are several tips for sticking to your 2020 goals:

Create a 30 day plan for yourself and print out a calendar just for that goal. I love to create 30 day challenges for myself. For example, I will think about a goal such as eating out less to save money. So for 30 days, I will make my challenge to eat simple meals at home. Then I create a plan for myself, such as meal prepping, batch cooking, and planning meals out on a calendar.
Do your goal first thing in the morning. If your goal is to workout more, get up and do your workout. If you are trying to write blogs, get up and write for 30 minutes. Basically, use the first hour of your day for your highest priority.
When you think it, do it. If you have committed to a goal, it’s probably very important to you. And often, you will get little nudges throughout the day to do a task related to your goal. But you might make an excuse or procrastinate in the moment. Think of your goal as a crying child that needs attention right then and there. And just go do it! Take care of the task in the moment when it comes to you. Be in the flow with your new goal and listen to your inner guidance. Some baby steps can be accomplished quickly anyway and once you start, you will most likely find yourself enjoying the task.
Find ways to automate your goals. You will have more success in life if you can discover ways to systemize or automate tasks. For example, if you are setting 2020 goals related to your finances, automate withdrawls from your bank account to deposit into your investment account. If you are trying to get more clients for your business, record one video talking about major pain points related to your niche and then use that video as a marketing tool in your Facebook ads to direct people to your email list. Then set up a series of emails to build trust with new people. When you automate in this way, it helps to free up your time so you don’t have to keep repeating the same task. Look for things you repeat and then ask yourself how you can automate.

How can you motivate yourself when setting your 2020 resolution?

Keeping the momentum going can be tricky when you first start working on your 2020 resolution. It’s important to know what motivates you so you don’t quit. When setting 2020 goals, it can help if you have some kind of motivation in mind to make the daily tasks easier to tackle.

Think about what is motivating you to accomplish these goals.

Is it to create a more free lifestyle?

Is it to give you better health and energy?

Are you hoping to leave your job in a year?

Ideas to help you stay motivated with your 2020 resolution

There are a few ways you can stay motivated when setting 2020 resolutions. Here are a few ideas to help you stay on track:

Find a buddy to help- enlist the help of a friend or family member with a similar goal, or trade an hour of time to help each other. Maybe they can come and help in your garden for an hour and then you can go help them organize and clean their house.
Create a vision or goal board and post pictures that convey the feeling you are trying to accomplish. Keep the board in plain site to act as a daily reminder.
Get a coach, mentor or someone who will push you outside of your comfort zone. Ask for help from people who have already accomplished your new goal. When setting 2020 goals, think about who can help you step into your greatest self. Reach out to them and let them know you need motivation and challenges to stay engaged.
Write out your WHY on your white board. Knowing your why for accomplishing this goal and seeing it daily can help remind you of the bigger picture.
Treat or reward yourself as part of your goals. Not everything has to be a mundane task. Think of some things that would be enjoyable as related to your goal and incorporate them into your baby steps. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, some fun tasks might be finding new ways to workout that you love, discovering yummy healthy recipes, and connecting with new workout buddies.

Celebrate your accomplishments when you reach milestones with your 2020 resolution

When setting 2020 goals, decide right away how you will celebrate when you reach milestones along the way. It’s helpful if you have something to look forward to and you reward yourself.

The reward can be something that totally goes against your goal too! If you are working towards saving money by eating at home, and you are doing a 30 day challenge at home, maybe your reward is a nice night out to eat at a new restaurant in town.

Give yourself the gift of celebration for all the hard work you have done throughout the year. Take pictures to document your success and share the moment with people who helped you along the way!

Have you thought about setting your 2020 resolution? What is your top New Year’s resolution? What are your best goal setting tips?