How I Make My New Year’s Goals

The new year is coming fast, and that means there are lots of new opportunities on the horizon. I always get excited when New Year’s Eve rolls around, even though some years it’s harder than others to be full of excitement instead of worry over what the future will bring.

And one of the things that helps me get in the spirit of the holiday is writing down all my goals on New Year’s Eve. It’s a tradition that my daughters and I have had for a long time now. 

I wanted to share my method of writing out my New Year’s goals list with you guys, in case you want to try it out for yourselves or just hear about how other people do it. I always love to hear different perspectives, and I’d love to hear how you guys make your goals if you’d like to leave a comment!

But without further ado… let’s get started.

Step One – Divide The List Into Sections

I’ve always been particular about how my lists look when I’m through with them; and that goes for to-do lists and New Year’s goals, among other things. So I’ve always preferred dividing everything into sections, since it helps me to keep it organized.

For my goals, this normally means that I form 4 to 5 sections and then add 3 to 5 goals to each section. My sections normally include things like self care, finance, etc. But it tends to vary slightly from year to year.

One thing that I’ve changed up a little since I first started sectioning my lists, is that I add less sections as well as less goals in each section. Because although organizing the lists in this way can be nice, it can also lead to me biting off more than I can chew. There was a time when I would have up to 10 sections with 10 goals.

Step Two – Fill Out The Sections

You obviously knew this section was coming, but the next thing I do is fill in each section. I don’t always know what I’m going to write down before I start, but I normally have a vague idea forming and that’s how I narrow down which sections I want to add in the first place.

I don’t always have the same amount of goals for each section, some might end up looking a bit more bare than others. But I try to keep things as even as I can. Particularly with my self care section, my daughters always make me add more because it’s one that I tend to neglect. Whereas my finance section is always full. 😅

But more so than with the sectioning part of my routine, this is where I get carried away and add too much. Which leads me to step three…

Step Three – Make Sure The List Is Manageable

What I want to do and what I can do realistically are two very different things. But with the excitement that New Years Eve brings, I almost always get a bit ahead of myself. So after I’ve completed my list, I always go back over it to make sure it’s manageable.

I try to check myself during the process itself as much as I can, but it always pays to look through it one last time. If I feel like I’ve written down too many goals, or maybe made some goals a bit unreachable then I try to make adjustments.

The last thing you want to feel on New Year’s Day is overwhelmed!

Step… Through The Next Year

I don’t look at my New Year’s list every day, but I do keep my goals in mind and check things off as I complete them. I also try really hard to make all my goals reachable but there are a few here and there that I am happy if I even get close to completing. 

So remember to be kind to yourself guys, lists are just lists. And what matters is that we go into the new year with hope and a positive attitude. It’s like I always told my kids, positivity breeds positivity. Even if you don’t quite reach a goal you made on New Years Eve doesn’t mean you failed, you just keep working at it.

Speaking of which, I always think about my previous goals on New Year’s Eve. I give myself an honest evaluation and make it my informal goal to do a bit better than last year, but still give my past year’s self the credit she deserves. It doesn’t have to be a perfect job to be a good job.

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And that wraps up my New Years Eve routine, thank you so much for reading. As I mentioned earlier, I’d love to hear how you guys write out your resolutions and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!