Kind of: New Year’s Resolution

As the calendar turns a new page and we welcome the dawn of another year, it’s a common tradition to reflect on the past and set intentions for the future. New Year's resolutions are promises we make to ourselves, aiming for personal growth and positive change. However, making resolutions is one thing; sticking to them is another. In this blog, we’ll explore tips to create meaningful New Year resolutions that have a lasting impact.

I am not the kind of person who says, “Oh, I have a New Year’s resolution”. Just because I feel like I never set a “Year” resolution. Instead of doing that, I like to do it in a timely manner.

From my point of view, after I tried to research from many resources (books, articles, friends, etc.), I found that there are three common ways to set up your New Year resolutions. Let’s talk about it! Disclaimer: I am not going to talk about what is my New Year’s resolution in this writing, but more like how I form mine. Let’s talk about the common ways first.

1. Creating big goals.

This type of New Year’s resolution focuses on the big goals for the whole year straight. We’re not basically set a deadline to achieve it on specific dates; just if the year has ended, then it’s time to review. In this way, it seems to be worth implementing by those who can stick to a big dream and big pressure. Usually, the yearly resolution is something that is very big, and to achieve big things, you need to put in extra effort with a lot of pressure as well.

This type of goal setting is not the type that I will be comfortable holding on to because I feel burdened easily with something, and there will be a lot of intrusive thoughts about “what if” that I suffer along the process of achieving it. It is hard. So, salute for those who achieved their dream in this way.

2. The type of having specific goals

Not as big as the first one, this one is still a yearly goal but more specific and usually has a lot of list of goals that we want to achieve. Usually, it would be like, “This year, I want to have this, this, and this, and I also want to own this, this, and that”. We’re not setting the timeline for this one, still. We just need to stick to the bucket list through the whole year, and let’s review by the end of the year.

I am quite comfortable with this one since usually have a lot of things in my mind that I want to achieve, but I don’t really like it when I have to be so stressed if most of the lists are not even achieved, but the year is almost ended. So, again… Salute to those who can keep being sane about reviewing their whole bucket lists by the end of the year.

3. Make it timely.

This one has a special place in my heart, since I used to implement this method for the past few years back then. We basically set some behavior or sub-goals that we want to achieve. But, instead of focusing on the big goals, we try to achieve the sub-goals that coordinate with the big goal later after we achieve everything.

I don’t have much comment about this one, and maybe I am biased because I used to do it, lol. But, this one seems very intimidating if you have a sudden change in your occupation or lifestyle. Because you have to achieve it in a timely manner and you have to set some routine. So, if it is ruined by the unpredictable life path (future), you really have to manage it wisely.

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From my own perspective, everything’s right. Because there are so many people who can maintain their expectations and goals with any kind of method mentioned above, but we can’t deny the fact that some people aren’t.

Then, what about me?

What I do is combine that three method but with one extra, or I could say (main sauce). Life Value: why life value? The value that you hold in life always represents the way how you will perceive everything that you achieve and accomplish. Some people think that becoming a doctor is the way to become successful, but some do not think the same way, and it is because we all have different or not-so-similar values that we hold in our lives. So, ensuring you know your value at the beginning is the most important thing to set any kind of goals you want to achieve. Remember that values can be something that you have lived on all this time or something that you wanted to build to achieve a better version of yourself.

After setting up the values, I come up with the big goals that must be aligned with the values I hold. After that, I create the sub-goals from the big goals, which I can track on a more timely basis (not yearly, but monthly, weekly, or even daily). Last but not least, I form a habit (routine) as something that I will focus on to build the stairs to achieve the goals.

Having this method over the past few years, I feel like it gave me a lot of lessons (the good ones). Especially about focusing on the process and not always sticking your eye to the goals. It is also giving me the power to review the goals not in a yearly manner but more in a contextual manner. Because the key is “Value”. So if after one or three months you find out that your goals are not relevant anymore with the values you hold, then you can adjust them. It means that you have the freedom to actually create new adjusted goals that are more relevant to what you value in life.

Because the process will never betray the accomplishment.

What I can share with you is that having a New Year’s resolution is not about achieving and sticking to the goals. But it is about how much surprise you will enjoy by the process that you will have to achieve the goals.

One month of 2024 has passed; I hope that we have learned something already and for the rest of the months of this year…

All the best and keep surprising yourself!