New year – New you

This article is written by Anita Annestan: Administrative Assistant, Programming Interventions and Evaluation Branch/Youth Justice Division, Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services Toronto, Canada.

• The problem: The new year is the best time to get out of your routine and set higher expectations for yourself. We all are set in our ways and get accustomed to our current realities but if you set a goal, you will be surprised how different your perspective on life can change. Just in the journey to reach that goal, you may notice how your mindset can change as well as your life. You may not even want to continue in your current path.
• Why it matters: Push yourself to tackle your bucket list now before it is too late. We all need to grow as individuals by improving ourselves and the best time to start is now as time is very precious and limited. We all have hectic lives but if you set out an important enough goal, you will surely make time to execute it as your mind can do wonders.
• The solution: Having a game plan in place certainly helps in implementing changes to your life. If you have a strategy in place, there is a higher chance that it will be completed.

Now a new year has begun, this is the perfect time to take an inventory of your life and reflect back on 2022 to see what you feel has added meaning to your life, and what you feel may need to change. Sometimes we get into a rut, but the best time to take action is the beginning of a new year so we can start fresh and not look back at our regrets from the past, or what we haven’t accomplished this far. We can set new goals to keep us focused on where we want to be in the next year or even five years from now. If you get started now and take an in-depth look into what is keeping you stagnant, ensure you have a game plan ready in place to implement change.

The more detailed your goals are, the harder it will be for you to break the commitment.

Here are a few simple steps to help you get started:

1. Review

You will need to sit down and take a good look at 2022 and see where you went wrong and what you did right. What would you change and what would you do more of? This is a great way to audit your year and ensure that you can build off of last year’s positives, learn from the negatives, and not repeat them to ensure you have more positive experience that helps you go in the direction you would like to go.

2. Plan

Write down all your goals for this year and indicate ways you are going to implement them. You can have different categories such as personal/family, financial, and professional goals. For each category, you can indicate how you plan on executing these goals and indicate a timeline to ensure you keep yourself accountable. The more detailed your goals are, the harder it will be for you to break the commitment. If you have a tentative due date, even if you don’t accomplish it in time, you can see where you are when you reach the due date and assess if you are any closer to your target, or if you can add onto your initial goal. In either case, you can reevaluate the goal and game plan as needed. You might not be going in that direction now that you are there and decide to take another route, or you may have surpassed that initial goal so you will need to alter the goal to a new one.

3. Detox & De-clutter

Now that you have your goals in place, you will need to ensure the environment around you is geared towards encouraging your growth as well. You will need to declutter and detox your house to help facilitate your new goal or goals. If it is a fitness goal, ensure your kitchen is equipped with the essential foods you will need to sustain such a healthy lifestyle. If it is a financial goal, ensure that you have an office space which is decluttered and organised with a vision board to keep you motivated. You won’t always be motivated to keep focused on your goal, but when you are surrounded by an environment that is foolproof, it is less likely that you will be drawn to quit or lose motivation.

Don’t forget, before you start off the new year with big goals, you must also recognise all the joys that 2022 has brought you. Ensure you acknowledge all the great strides that were made in 2022 so you can be ready to tackle yet another year of great accomplishments.

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