Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. We’ve all made it through 2021 and here we are in 2022. Have you made any resolutions? Always good to consider New Year’s resolutions-making a decision to do or not do something. Here’s some food for thought, including hints on how to turn your resolutions into reality.
Goskills, an online learning center for continuing education, recently provided this list of the top 10 most common New Year’s Resolutions:
- Exercise more
- Lose weight
- Get organized
- Learn a new skill or hobby
- Live life to the fullest
- Save more money/spend less money
- Quit smoking
- Spend more time with family and friends
- Travel more
- Read more
Plus, Parade, had ten more possible resolutions, smaller in size, but also potentially a big impact:
- Perform Random Acts of Kindness
- Volunteer
- Drink more water
- Talk to yourself with kindness
- Bring a plant into your home
- Stay in touch with people who matter
- Talk less, listen more
- Avoid people who complain a lot
- Write down one thing you’re grateful for every night
- Whatever your goals are, write them down
Next, what’s the best way to accomplish your goals? Goskill provides these suggestions:
- Mentally prepare for change. Step one is a personal inventory and, if you made this resolution last year, what progress did you make? Change should be made in small steps allowing room for error.
- Set a goal that motivates you. It needs to be important to you and that there is value or benefits for you in it. The resolutions should align with your top priorities.
- Limit the resolutions to 3-5. Better to tackle one resolution well than 10 poorly.
- Be specific. Goskills encourages SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Sensitive
- Write-down your goals
- Monitor your progress
- If you fall off the track, get back on quickly
Lastly, since so many resolutions are focused on health and well-being, here are some specific recommendations to accomplish your 2022 fitness goals, thanks to the WSJ’s Jen Murphy:
- Success starts with setting the right resolutions. Focus on what makes you feel good.
- Create an environment that sets you up for success- e.g. put your morning exercise clothes next to your bed at night.
- Anticipate obstacles. Schedule workout times when you have a good chance of being there.
- Find you passion. Spend your time on activities that excite you.
- Make it social. Walk with a friend.
- Schedule your workouts, and have a backup plans if the workout needs to be shortened.
- Invest in your workout. Buy some new gear, sign up for a class, get a coach.
- Make your workout a means to an end. Start training for a 5k race or sign up for a week-long hiking trip in the Grand Tetons and spend months getting yourself in shape for it.
- Gamify your workout. Use Garmin, Fitbit and others technology so you can monitor your progress.
- Give yourself a pass sometimes. It’s shouldn’t be all or nothing. Celebrate your progress and regroup and refocus.
We encourage you all to consider making and keeping some key 2022 Resolutions. At DWM, we’re all about continuous improvement for our team and for our relationships and our service to our clients. Our world is changing so much every day. Certainly, it’s easy to find things to complain about, yet we are so fortunate to live in America and have the great opportunities we all have. Let’s make a promise to each other to make our lives, our families, our communities, our nation and our world better this coming year. Then, let’s all do a little something each day to make our resolutions become reality.