10 Things to Consider Before Setting New Year Resolutions.

10 Things to Consider Before Setting New Year Resolutions.

If you set New Year's resolutions, do this first:

Take inventory of where you are now.

If we do not know how we currently feel, think, and move through the world - we have no starting point from which to move forward.

You have to know where you are on a map so you can find a route to your desired location.

Imagine if you were visiting Chicago and someone gave you a map of Paris.  This would not be much help! 

Although there are still streets and metro stations on this map, everything is not quite right (aside from the obvious language issue and that the subway in Chicago is called the "El", but, I digress...).

My point is that you must do two things before moving forward:

1) Find your map.

2) Find exactly where you are on that map.

Here are some questions to help you find your "map" and your "location" on that map.

 

10 Things to Consider Before Setting New Year Resolutions:

1) Past experiences.  How are you interpreting them?  Are you generally curious or do you play the victim?

2) Relationships.  Who are the 5-7 people who are currently most present in your life right now?  Do they support you or drag you down?

2a) Relationships #2:  How is your social life?  Do you make time to be with others, or do you isolate?

3) Inner work.  What are you currently doing well? Are you self-reflective and able to observe your thoughts, feelings, and habits objectively? Or do you have a harsh inner critic that constantly judges everything you do?

4) Strengths.  Do you know what your strengths are?  Do you consistently use them to help solve problems?

5) Emotions. Are you comfortable experiencing a wide range of emotions? Or do you live in one emotion (e.g. always anxious, always angry or resentful, always sad or depressed, etc)?

6) Emotions #2: If you tend to live in one emotion, what is it hiding?  What is behind/underneath that emotion that you haven't dealt with?

7) Self-perception.  Are you able to clearly describe yourself right now?  What 5-10 words would you use?

8) Physical health.  What are you doing to care for your body?  Are you eating well? Moving/exercising every day? Sleeping well? 

9) Mental health. Are you aware of your thoughts?  Do you often fall into unhelpful thinking patterns?  Do you take time away from the news, social media, and other numbing (or anxiety-provoking) habits?

10) Spiritual health.  Do you pray, meditate, contemplate?  Do you have a "higher power" (god, gods, source, spirit, science, the universe) that you look to for guidance?

Next steps before the New Year

As we move into the new year, it may be helpful to take some time to write out some answers to the above.

And, if you'd like help talking through them, I created a session to do just that.

It's called a "Visioning Session" and is designed to help you figure out where you are currently, but also where you want to go in the new year - and beyond.

My clients always find this session inspiring and they leave feeling excited for future possibilities.

In this session, we will talk through things that most people don't talk about.  Things like:

• your fears and what is holding you back from living your best life
• how you might compare your life to the lives of others - and how this is keeping you stuck or resentful
• what you secretly know you are "done with" - but have not yet released
• what truly motivates you and inspires you (not someone else!)
• what your "future self" might say about you and your life.

We also talk through your strengths and how you are using them - or not - and how you might call upon them to help you move forward in your life.

This is a beautiful way to start the new year, and for my newsletter subscribers, I'm offering this 75-minute private coaching session with me for 30% off.

This offer expires on December 31, 2024.

You can use this link to learn more about this session.

Here's wishing you a beautiful and safe holiday season and hoping you achieve all you desire in 2025!