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Twin Cities Mom Collective

Your Resolution Roadmap

Your Resolution Roadmap | Twin Cities Mom Collective

Every January we each embark on our unique journeys of personal improvement. Many of us resolve to get healthier or to become a better {parent, partner, meal-planner}, or fix finances… the list goes on. In other words, we have set goals and hit the reset button. New Year, new you.

However once the buzz of the new year wears off, motivation inevitably begins to wane. Many of us get impatient by not seeing immediate results, and making habit changes is hard. Therefore, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and slide back into old habits, thus giving up. According to U.S. News and World Report, 80% of New Years resolutions fail by February, so consider this post your check in with yourself to see how you are doing. I want this community of moms to be in that successful 20%. The following is a roadmap to help you stay on the path of your resolution journey.

First, make sure there’s a positive spin on your goal. “I want to be healthier” instead of “I want to lose weight,” or “I want financial freedom” not “I want to pay off debt.” In these examples, both lose and debt are examples of negative language. This is a small, but mighty difference. Most of us are wired to gravitate towards positivity so by changing the language, you are already more likely to succeed.

Next, break your positive but vague, long term goal into smaller, more specific and manageable pieces. This becomes your day to day. This will make it feel as though you are actually accomplishing something. By creating short term goals that are related to the long term goal, you are ensuring more success. For example, “I want to wear a size 6 again,” is a long term goal. The short term goals related to this might be to go to the gym 3 days this week, and drink more water daily. Each of these little steps are all still walking in the right direction.

Depending on what your goal is, it might be helpful to surround yourself with like-minded people and have them check in on you, hold you accountable. Is there a local community of people also trying to reach this goal? If not, maybe there’s a Facebook group. If you prefer to go it alone, I bought a 90 day goal journal (the Instagram ads were very effective) to check in with myself.

Perhaps establish a different kind of reward system. Again something related to your long term goal. If you are trying to become healthier, your reward for staying on track shouldn’t be a bowl of ice cream, but maybe buy a new workout outfit, or get a massage. If a tight budget doesn’t allow for that, then maybe sit in the sauna or hot tub at your gym. I also like to buy flowers or houseplants for myself, or go to the library and check out books related to my goal. And if you need to celebrate yourself every day, do it.

Most importantly, check in with yourself often and remember why you set out on this goal in the first place. My kids are one of my biggest motivators. When I was training for the marathon, as I was pushing “through the walls” (for the non-runners, this is a point of extreme “I can’t go on” but you push through anyway), I would listen to songs that reminded me of them. I crossed many finish lines with their favorite song blaring through my headphones. My goal was to run a marathon. My why was to teach my kids about commitment, determination, endurance, showing up every day, goal setting and goal succeeding.

Lastly, accept that you will have failures and it’s all a part of the process, not a reason to give up. I first heard this saying 2 decades ago and it has stuck with me ever since: The road to your goals is like a highway with on and off ramps. As with any road trip, you will occasionally get off the highway (there might even be a full on detour), but to reach your destination you will need to get back on. So even if you have already broken your promises to yourself, it’s not a reason to quit, it’s just a detour, and every day is a chance to get back on the on ramp of your highway.

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