Making new year's resolutions is a common occurrence. Social media and productivity gurus encourage us to prepare a list of things we wish to achieve within a year and follow it strictly.
Let me ask you this: have you prepared your list of goals this year? What goals have you completed? Your answer is most likely a no, and in reality, not many people are good at following through on new year’s resolutions and plans. These questions might bring down anyone who was too busy to focus on their goals or simply had to deal with too many hardships of 2020.

So how do you set and follow your goals without feeling overwhelmed? Here are some tips that will help you revise the list of your achievements and be more mindful of your plans and dreams next year.

Take a step back

Chasing a sense of productivity, you can easily forget how far you’ve come. Try to analyse your achievements for the past five years. Take your time writing a list of everything you have reached during this time. Finance, self-improvement, education, socialisation, hobbies, career - everything that made your life better in any way. 

This process will help you not only see the direction you have been following for all those years but might also show you that you have reached a major breakthrough not so long ago, and that’s exactly why your progress seems small. 

For instance, let’s say you got promoted three years ago. It was quite a big achievement - well done! So would it be wise to put a new promotion on your goals list in those past three years? Probably not, and you should have focused on another sphere of your life.

Balance it out

That leads us to the idea that you don’t need to focus on just one aspect of your goals. Ambitions are great, but life has a way of reminding us to keep things balanced. You can be a true workaholic dreaming of reaching your financial heights, but perhaps you need to take care of your health beforehand. 

Some spheres of our lives demand more attention and should be taken into consideration first. Make sure you set them as your priority while making plans for the upcoming year.

Here are just some ideas of categories you can divide your goals into:

  • Health 

  • Family and friends

  • Career

  • Finance

  • Hobby

  • Education

  • Spirituality 

Feel free to cross out any categories or add more depending on your lifestyle! 

Less is more

You have probably seen huge lists of goals people love posting online. The thing is, even if 365 (366) days might seem like a long time, not all your goals can be reached, leaving you upset. 

Keep the goal list minimalistic. What are the most important things for you to reach in a new year? Imagine you can put only four major goals on the list - one for each quarter of the year. What would they be? 

Restrictions will make you choose the most important goals to reach, thus making the job easier for you. 

Prioritise 

So, once you have successfully shortened your list of goals, it’s still necessary to prioritise them. Which ones are the most important for you? 

Once you have defined the most important goal, you can focus on it completely.

For your comfort, you can break it down into smaller steps you need to take to fully achieve it. Think of it as of charging a device. 10%, 20% ready… Slowly but steadily, you will reach 100% at your own pace. 

Take circumstances into consideration 

This year was pretty hard on everyone. Many plans were ruined, and it’s not something we could have controlled or even predicted. Remember that such occurrences may not be rare. Sudden changes in your routine are impossible to predict, so you need to leave room for something unexpected. In case of a crisis, how many goals would still be your priority? Can you replace them with something similar? How easy are they to reach if your resources are limited? 

Always think 1 step ahead of circumstances. 

It’s okay to look back on the previous year and see that you haven’t reached all your goals. The time changes and our needs alter with it. All you need to do is to listen to yourself and be more mindful of what you want in your life. It’s time to stop chasing the quantity of things you want to achieve and replace it with quality. Make your life balanced and fill it with something you consider important. And just like that, reaching those goals might seem a little bit easier.