New Year, New Goals - Tips for Setting Yourself Up for Success with Your Resolutions

Another year has quickly come and gone and 2025 is just around the corner! With the turn of the new year comes the new year's resolutions and the setting of new goals! Whether your goals are fitness related, such as reaching a personal best during your strength training workouts, or health related, such as quitting a nasty habit, no goal can be reached without proper planning, change, and discipline. In order to determine how we will succeed in setting our goals, we must also understand why goals and resolutions fail.

Why do Goals and Resolutions fail?

1 - Thinking too broadly or unrealistically.

When we sit down to determine what we want to achieve, if we are not specific enough, we are only setting ourselves up to flounder or even fail entirely. Setting a proper goal means setting a S.M.A.R.T. goal.

S - Specific: Make sure you are specific in what you want to achieve. A general goal of "I want to be healthier" is a great place to start, but is too broad. "I want to be healthier by working out more often and eating more nutrient dense meals" is more specific and sets you up to be able to create a better and more controlled plan of attack.

M - Measurable: Once you've set your specific goal, make sure it is measurable in a way that works for you. You have to ask yourself: How will I track my progress? How will I know when I've reached my goal? If you cannot track and measure your progress towards your goal, how will you know when you've reached it?! You won't!

A - Achievable: A goal must be realistic and achievable. Setting a goal to lose a large amount of weight in a minimal amount of time may seem achievable.. but is it going to be done realistically? Will it damage your health? Your relationship with food.. or yourself? These are all questions that need to be asked!

R - Relevant: How does the goal line up with your personal views and beliefs? How does the goal align with this chapter of your life? If it doesn't factor into your life in a way that brings growth or wellness, is it truly a goal that should be set?

T - Timely: What is the timeline of the goal? Is this a short term goal, or a long term goal? Is this something that will be temporary or a long-lasting habit change, like quitting smoking or cutting our alcohol? You have to know how long you will be working so you can determine the checkpoints that may need to occur along the way. In addition, when setting the timeline portion of the goal, we have to be prepared for the fact that the timeline may need to be adjusted when you least expect it!

2 - You haven't discovered the WHY.

Many times when we set goals, we set them because we think it's something we should do. After the first of the new year, everyone always thinks they need to set a weight loss goal and get to the gym and after a week or so.. POOF... gone. This happens because people are not truly discovering why they feel the need to go to the gym and lose weight.. they are not discovering why they want to achieve a specific goal. Or, if the why is something out of social pressure, and it doesn't align with that person's current view of themselves and their existence in the world, then the dedication and discipline takes a nose dive and the goal just won't be met. Do not set a goal because it is something you think you should do. Set a goal because it's something you WANT to do for YOU.

3 - You're not ready to make a change.

We have to be in the right position to make a change, whether big or small. If we are not ready to change, or not in the position to make a specific change, then achieving our goal becomes impossible. The Stages of Change Model indicates that there are five stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Moving through the stages of change, we start with no intent to change, navigate through intending to change within a month, to implementing the change and then maintaining that change. While each stage of change is different, they all require understanding of being in the right place at the right time.

4 - You are not planning ahead.

Once you decide on a goal and begin implementing it, if you do not map out your gameplan you are only holding yourself back. For example, let's go back to the goal of wanting to eat more nutrient dense foods. One of the best things to do when it comes to your nutrition is meal prep! Therefore, planning ahead for your nutrition goal could include creating a grocery list to limit extra unnecessary purchases, planning meals to add nutrient-dense ingredients, as well as cut down on impulse pizza ordering, and organizing your pantry and refrigerator to make healthier snacks easily accessible after you've gone grocery shopping! Planning out the steps you will take will only make it easier for you achieve your goals and stick to those changes.

How do I Succeed?

Here are my top five tips for succeeding in reaching your goals:

1. Take the time to prepare. You are doing this for you and you deserve to show up for yourself 100%.

2. Check in with yourself and monitor your progress. You won't know how far you've come if you don't know where you started.

3. Replace resolutions with habits. Implementing habit changes creates a positive change domino effect!

4. Focus on discipline, not motivation. Motivation is fleeting, its about how bad you want to achieve the goal and how much you are willing to commit to yourself.

5. Remember that taking smaller steps is necessary! Short-term goals add up to long-term goals!

Setting goals come new year's doesn't have to be daunting. If you have the right tools and take the time to plan, you'll pass that goal in no time!

Interested in getting some more guidance with setting your goals? Check out our new guide: A Guide to Setting and Reaching Your Goals. This PDF is full of tips and tricks to reaching your goals, as well as worksheets and to help you along the way! Check it out in our store today! Club Euphoria members get a special discount!