How to Keep Your 2022 Goals Alive

Goal setting and resolutions are a huge topic of conversation this time of year. Everyone wants to know what your 2022 goals are - do you want to get healthy? Make more money? Have a new experience? Whatever they may be, we can often feel overwhelmed by expectations - both the expectations others have for us and the expectations we have for ourselves.

According to a 2019 Discover Happy Habits Study, only 7% of people actually achieve their new year’s resolutions. This statistic is alarmingly low! What’s to blame? First is a lack of mindful and realistic goal setting. Mindful goal setting requires planning, critical thinking, and the ability to follow through on the goals we set. Interested in learning more about mindful goal setting? Subscribe to our blog and receive a FREE copy of our Ultimate Time Management Guide, which features helpful goal-setting worksheets. 

The second reason that many people do not keep their New Year’s resolutions is because setting a resolution is the easy part - achieving the resolution takes a lot more intention. Below are my top 5 tips to keep your goals alive in 2022:

1. Practice Mindful and Intentional Goal Setting. It is a common saying that goals are just fantasies until they are put into action–this couldn’t be more true! Having a goal and achieving a goal are two completely different beasts. When setting a goal you want to consider three primary things: (1) why you have this goal, (2) how you can achieve it, and (3) what achieving it would mean to you. Once you have these things written down, you can better align your actions with the steps needed to achieve your goals. 

2. Focus on the journey, not the destination. When working toward achieving a goal, it can be tempting to focus solely on the endpoint. Goals like “I want to lose 20 pounds” or “I want to make six figures this year” can quickly become overwhelming and ultimately deter you from achieving them. . Instead of thinking about completing the goal, think about the individual steps first: in order to make six figures this year, you would need to make approximately $8.3k every month, or $2k per week. Write down how you plan to achieve this using tangible and realistic steps. Then rather than focusing on the large number, focus on the smaller numbers: your first $2k, your first $8k, and so on and so forth. Shifting our mindset away from the end goal can help us combat emotional overwhelm and feel more secure in our ability to achieve our goals. 

3. Create a system for checking in on your progress regularly. Regardless of what system works best for you, make sure you have one in place to track progress as you go. I highly recommend doing goal check-ins 4 or more times a year (I do them weekly!). This time for self-reflection allows you to take a look at where you are in your progress, what is holding you back, and it gives you a chance to celebrate when you’ve reached a milestone. Skipping this step can often lead to lost and forgotten goals because you are missing out on accountability. Subscribe to our blog and receive a FREE copy of our Ultimate Time Management Guide, which features a free self-review worksheet. 

4. Create reward systems. Accomplishing a goal does not have to be entirely about the end prize. When setting the steps to achieve your goals, consider laying out additional rewards for yourself when you hit certain milestones. Let’s use our six-figure example again here: if you want to reach the $100k goal, set smaller milestone goals that come with mini prizes. For example, at your first $2k milestone, you take yourself out to a nice meal; at your first $8k you get a ½ day off of work; and at the $25k mark you go on a weekend vacay (these are examples that would motivate me, remember to set motivators that work well for you!). These small rewards help keep us consistently excited about our goals, rather than dreading having to continue to work on them. 

5. Have patience with yourself. Patience is the name of the game when it comes to achieving your goals. Remember that not all goals have the same level of urgency, nor do they require the same amount of emotional energy. Have patience with yourself as you are working towards achieving these goals, because just putting in the work to try is half the battle. Life is a bit complicated and our goals and needs can shift on a dime. Don’t let changes in your life impact your larger goals, but understand that sometimes shifts are unavoidable. Work as hard as you can, reward yourself for working hard, and have patience with yourself to know that it will work out. 

Want to kick off 2022 on the right foot? Subscribe to the blog and get access to our Ultimate Time Management Guide, available 1/7/2022, which houses invaluable knowledge on setting up your personalized time management system for 2022. It also includes 5+ worksheet pages to help you stay on track in the new year!