Yearly reset - setting goals, reflecting on your year and realising you don’t need to become a new person just improve who you already are
People love a ritual. There’s no bigger ritual than the hit of New Year’s Eve. Cultures around the world all have different things that they do as the clock strikes midnight and we ascend into another year. Another thing that people do every year - is write New Year’s Resolutions.
Goal setting and writing down goals has been scientifically studied to be more effective in helping you reach said goal. Writing down what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it essentially tells your brain that it’s something you’re serious about.
The issue, however, with New Year’s resolutions, is that it disregards the key factor in goal setting - the why. People will make up goals that they don’t particularly care about or align with because it’s a new year and “New Year = New me.” To really truly create and achieve a goal - there needs to be a greater reason than “just because.”
On my blog, you will soon see a post entitled “my 2025 wrapped.” In which you can look upon my 2025 and follow along with me in the way I reflect upon my year. I reminisce on who I was at the beginning of the year and how I’ve changed as a person. It made me realise that “New Year = New me” is right but just not in the sense that it’s most commonly used. The New you isn’t the person you are between 11:59pm - 12am on the 31st of December - it’s the way that you grow and adapt to changes in your life and the world throughout the year.
The new you isn’t a character that you think you want to be. It’s you. It’s your accomplishments and your lessons and failures. The new you is just you, improved.
So instead of setting goals to fit into an idea of yourself that is perfect, set goals that you want right now.
Here’s some examples using the top 5 types of resolutions:
Personal growth and lifestyle
Reading
This is a big one. People always say they “want to read more in the New year.”
Why?
Perhaps because it seems intellectual. There’s so much you can learn from books and you can relate to a character or an escape into another world. You can engage in storytelling in one of its oldest forms.
But what about you? Do you read a lot now? What sort of books do you want to read? Does reading fit into your life? Are you saying you want to read more because you ACTUALLY want to read more?
Take me for example: recently I’ve been reading a lot more and my brain seems to have rewired to be able to focus on things like new stories/information and harder language. I think that this has been as I’ve woken up my creative side and took on creative projects - I can now understand and appreciate things in a different way.
This leads me to my own goal:
To start reading classic literature
It aligns with who I am right now as I feel I’ve got the mental tools to both understand and enjoy it. It would benefit my university course and also my own reading. Just like music, knowing the influences and history and major events of literature will make the experience that much more enjoyable.
Health and Fitness
Exercise
Everyone gets a gym membership in the new year, uses it twice and never goes again. I think there’s a few reasons for this. Exercise is hard. Especially when it’s new for you. You have to step outside of your comfort zone and push yourself in a way that makes you think “how is everyone else just doing this?”
Honest answer, they’re not. Unless they have a why. Do you want to get stronger or more agile? If it’s aesthetic reasons, is that truly an important enough motivator for you? Do you want to exercise because you know how important it is for your body and mind and you want to stay healthy?
Now you have your why, set your goal and make it specific. Train for something or aim to be able to do a certain amount of weight or exercises.
I have two exercise goals:
Train for wilmslow sprint triathlon - aiming to just attend and have fun
I started running in April 2025 and spontaneously booked to do this Triathlon. I’ve never been the best swimmer and haven’t ridden a bike in years. I quite like this sort of thing because now I’ve booked it I can’t get out of it. So I’m somehow going to prove to myself the lengths that I can go through and the limits I can push. This is what I loved about running and exercise in the first place - seeing myself grow.
To be able to do 10 pull ups
Currently, I can’t even do a single push up. I am aware of different variations I can do, however, to get to this goal. Meaning throughout the year there will be smaller sub-goals such as push ups and assisted pull ups etc.
I want to build my strength this year as I think it’s just as important as endurance. It helps with daily tasks in your mundane life such as carrying shopping bags. Plus, being able to hold myself up will help with walking and climbing.
Healthy eating
What’s interesting about this is - I’m not sure most people are aware what healthy eating is. Is it eating less? Is it not snacking? Is it only eating salad.
Before you go and make any healthy eating goal, I’d highly recommend you do research, watch videos and learn about actual nutritional facts. Whats healthy for someone else might not be healthy for you based on many factors but one big one is your attitude towards eating.
At the end of the day it’s great to want to fill yourself with food that’s going to help and nourish you but lord knows that this world has made too enemies of food. The over-eater and the under-eater.
Let’s aim for a nice, healthy balance. That’s why my goal this coming year is:
To eat intentionally
Quitting a habit or addiction
This can mean many things for many different people.
Ask yourself the question: why do you want to quit?
My example is my phone. I, personally, don’t even enjoy doomscrolling. It’s just something that happens that stops me from doing/ learning the things that I want to. On top of this, I’ve been doing a lot of research recently about how streaming platforms have been detrimental for art and creativity - especially with the use of AI.
So my goals are to:
Minimise screen time
And
Use physical media instead of streaming platforms
I would categorise an addiction as something you do knowing it has a negative effect on you but you do it anyway. The kind of addiction I have to my phone is definitely chemical and so deeply imbedded into everyone that I can’t imagine a world without it. Maybe one day I will just swap out my iPhone for a Nokia brick and run away to a cottage where I can bake cupcakes and sing songs to birds.
You might have another thing you want to quit. Smoking, drinking etc. If that’s the case I’m very proud of you for taking the first step and saying you want to. Don’t forget your why and remember there’s communities of people out there dealing with the same thing. You don’t have to deal with it alone.
Finances
I think a finance goal works best if you have something you want to save up for. Maybe a house or a trip, a new camera, a car.
Some people want to stop spending money frivolously, some people want to earn a set amount of money.
Quite honestly, this is something I need to work on. I can be so spontaneous that when I do have money, I don’t for very long. I’m sure a lot of you are the same - especially in this economy.
Unfortunately, some of the stuff I spend it on is definitely unnecessary. Ubers to university instead of walking, delivery when I can’t be bothered too cook etc. I’m hoping by being honest with you, if you struggle with this it’s not just you. Apps are specifically designed for that. To get you so used to the comfort of just having food or a ride right at your door.
I have deleted the apps that allow me to do this and have made a list of things that I want to save for. Such as Driving lessons, camera equipment and flights. Knowing that I can save for these things in the long run makes it easier to sacrifice short term highs.
Relationships
Relationships are such a complex topic. We need human connections to live and grow. But do you feel like there’s something holding you back? Maybe you don’t feel fulfilled with your friendships or your longing for a relationship?
All these things require one thing that so many people are scared to do: inner work. Because how you feel within effects your approach and ideas around relationships.
What sort of people do you want to be around? Are you around them right now? How can you put yourself in situations where you do end up around those people? And is there things that you can do yourself to make sure you can meet people where they are?
I’m not saying that it’s wrong to want a relationship or that you’ll be alone forever but my suggestion before entering anything is:
1.) Make sure that you’re comfortable alone. Are you meeting your own social and creative needs before relying on anyone else? Because if you rely on someone to fill something inside you like your love of, I don’t know, music and they can’t then it could end up in resentment.
2.) You are putting human connection before anything else. Do you and this other person click and are you compatible? Or are you simply looking for someone to validate you.
Maybe you could change around your goals. Instead of saying “I want to get into a relationship this year” or “I want to have more friends” you could say:
I want to have people around me that support me and help me thrive