How to set resolutions you can keep all year round
It’s this time of the year. Hordes of people rush to the gyms or invest in home-training programs. We buy courses we’ll never actually take, invest in self-help books, prepare yearly budgets… Or we brush the New Year’s resolution craze aside, thinking that we won’t keep the resolutions anyway, so why bother?
But even if you aren’t setting any resolutions, it might be worthwhile to take a moment and see where you are now. This way, when December 2022 rolls around, you will be able to compare your situation from the start of the year to the one at the end. The results might surprise you!
Set your baseline
Now is a great time to assess where you’re at. You can do this for any aspect of your life, like relationships and health, but we will focus on the professional one. The examples apply to freelancers, but the advice works for any type of professional career.
Think about what metrics are important to you. Tangible ones are the best for objectivity. So, for example, you may write down how much you’re earning. How many clients you have. How many hours weekly you’re spending at work. And so on. Put the information in a private file that you will look at again at the end of the year.
Then ask yourself if you’re satisfied with your current results.
And if not, what areas could you work on to improve your satisfaction?
What are the best resolutions?
When you know what you’d like to improve, it’s time to make a resolution – or a few. There’s a trick to it. In short, the best resolutions to make are those you can control fully. For example, you could decide to take a good course to level up your web-design skills. Barring extreme situations, this action is fully within your control.
Avoid resolutions which depend on external factors. For example, don’t set out to earn a specific amount or to get a specific number of clients. How much you earn depends on other factors: your competition, the demand for your services, global economy, even Google algorithms – because if they change, your website could become less – or more – visible.
Focus on what’s within your control to avoid frustration and make your resolutions possible to keep.
Prepare a yearly plan
Planning is a powerful way to set yourself up for success. Don’t just rush in trying to do everything at once! Overhauling your entire system won’t work. Instead, aim for gradual but consistent progress.
Start small. Add just one new thing into your routine in January. For example, if you would like to become more creative in your web-design projects, set aside 10 minutes a day to look for inspiration online and save your results.
Just remember that you’ll have to take those 10 minutes from somewhere, so think what you’d have to give up to find time for your new habit. (Or delegate! Are you the one doing grocery shopping? Ask your partner to get the groceries done, and spend this time on your new habit.)
In February, focus on something else – maybe take a short course to learn new skills? (For example, you can join our 5-Day CSS & Divi Challenge to build strong CSS foundations in just 5 days!) Or make a plan to start levelling up your skills, even if you take just small steps with free materials – such as our Beginner Guide for Working with Custom CSS in Divi. And so on.
Take into account holidays and even the seasons! If some months are especially dreary (like November in Poland), go easy on yourself then.
Keep it fun and easy
Strong will and self-discipline will only take you so far. All it takes for even the strongest will to crumble is one difficult, tiring day.
That’s why we need to keep our New Year’s resolutions by other means: making them fun and easy.
You need to figure out the specifics of what would make a new habit fun and easy for you, but here are a couple of suggestions to give you an idea. For example, plan your habit for the morning, when you are refreshed after sleeping and still have plentiful mental resources to spend. It will make the new habit much easier to do.
Or look for resources that appeal to you! Don’t take a course if it seems like it will be boring or if you don’t like the instructor – take the course that speaks to you on a personal level with someone who’s fun to be around!
Final thoughts
We hope 2022 brings you a lot of joy and success! We are rooting for you and hoping you’ll achieve anything you set out to do. Now, what are your New Year’s resolutions? Tell us in the comments so we can cheer you on!
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