As we bring in the new year and focus on another decade, consider reflecting on your experiences and creating goals for the future. Often in the new year, we seek to create new goals or redefine the ones we have already established. More commonly, these goals focus on lifestyle changes such as health, wellness, financial freedom, and personal development. However, research shows many struggle to maintain their goals through late January and February, becoming frustrated along the way. In order to make change, consistently monitoring progress and modifying habits until a goal is reached is crucial. Here are a few ideas to keep you on track for the goals you’d like to work on this year.

1. Remove negativity: Step away from people and experiences that drain your energy. Putting effort and energy into those not serving you does not make you feel good about yourself and can impede your success in achieving the goals you have set for yourself. When faced with negativity, avoid letting this bring you down. Instead reach out to a friend to talk to and reset after a negative experience. Negativity leads to stress and can impact your emotional wellbeing. 

2. Set realistic expectations: Make sure when you set goals, you are not expecting major lifestyle changes in a short period of time. Overly ambitious or unrealistic goals will increase your chances of failing. Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t get back on track, however it’s a bit less stressful to create reasonable goals and this more easily leads to success. Try creating small goals that lead to larger outcomes such as choosing a specific strategy such as a daily positive affirmation, to work on a larger goal of reducing depression and increasing self-esteem. 

3. Avoid “shoulds”: Often we set rigid beliefs around what we “should” be doing or how our lives “should” be. When things don’t work as we feel they “should”, we can feel sad, anxious, depressed, and inadequate. Allow yourself to think “flexibly” in your goals and life altogether. It’s okay to set goals but don’t feel they “should” be achieved in a certain way. 

4. Celebrate yourself: As you work toward positive changes, reward yourself on the journey toward reaching these. This will keep you motivated throughout the process. Rewards such as fun activities with friends, self-care time, and others can be great goals/rewards.

If you need additional support managing goals and expectations, consider meeting with a trained clinician, who can help you modify behaviors and establish goals to meet those you want to work toward. They can also help to monitor and strategize around your emotional wellbeing in order to ensure goals do not become too stressful.