How to stick to your goals and New Year's resolutions for 2021

What are you doing right now?! Are you multitasking?! You better not have a bagel in your hand while reading this... Sticking to resolutions and trying to achieve new goals for 2021 will be challenging. Here's how cutting the negativity of your life will help you get MORE done in 2021.

Create a vision board

Take the image version of the goals or tasks you want to accomplish in the New Year and compile them into a collage. You can use the collage as a phone or laptop background. You can also create a physical 2021 vision board to hang in a space that you will see every day. This will help to keep you inspired and remind you of your goals that you want to accomplish throughout the year.

Start making small progress now

Accomplishing little tasks will help set the tone to achieving bigger ones. For instance, if one of your goals for 2021 is to keep your room clean, start by making your bed every day. Accomplishing one small task will help get the ball rolling, making you feel more motivated to keep up with your goal. If your bed is always made, you’ll be more inclined to want to keep the rest of your space cleaned too. 

Follow inspirational content on social media 

We have access to endless amounts of content! Take advantage of that in 2021. You can start by following accounts that post content that makes you feel inspired, at peace, or just all-around good about yourself. You can even follow hashtags! Find popular hashtags that are tailored to your 2021 goals that post helpful, encouraging, or uplifting content. For example, I follow #elegantstyle and #homemaking for both outfit and cleaning inspiration. The great part about this is that this content will appear on your feed for as long as you like, meaning it will remind you of your goals when you’re probably spending way too much time mindlessly scrolling through your phone. 

Unfollow harmful content on social media

Although it can be helpful to follow uplifting and inspiring content online, it can be equally as harmful if we are not mindful of the content we are choosing to consume. Unfollow, unsubscribe, and stop intentionally exposing yourself to any content that makes you feel bad about yourself. For example, if your resolution for 2021 is to lose weight, unfollow the Instagram models and instead follow the hashtag #healthyrecipes. You’ll still be inspired when seeing all of the colourful and nutritious meals, but the pictures of acai bowls won’t leave you feeling terrible about yourself. Unfollowing the people who constantly post negative comments is also encouraged. I’m convinced that the little online complaints, like about improper Starbucks orders, really do add up and take an emotional toll on us.

Grace, not perfection

This is the debatably most important thing out of all of these tips. As much as we wish and hope for our goals and lives to turn out exactly as we planned, at the exact time when we plan for them to happen…this is almost never the case. We must all be easier on ourselves and take LESS on than we are now. Yes, I said LESS! The more we plan and rush our days, the less we get done in the process. What ends up happening is we end up feeling stressed and even more unfulfilled than ever before. When we choose to slow down and actually enjoy whatever it is we are doing in the moment, that’s when we will truly feel the most fulfilled. For example, take a moment and think about the last time you actually intentionally enjoyed food? Many of us love our morning dose of bagels & coffee, but do you truly enjoy the meals you eat? I can guarantee the last meal you ate was either done while working, studying, streaming videos…need I go on? No matter how much progress you make on your goals in 2021, is all of the progress really worth it if you don’t take the time to enjoy the process of self-improvement? It’s time to slow down my friend. Do less, set healthy boundaries for yourself, respect your own time. What you’ll find is that by slowing down you won’t only make more maintainable progress, but you’ll actually enjoy the process of reaching your goals. So slow down and give yourself a moment to actually sit down, take a bite of that bagel AND enjoy it too.