The Truth About New Year’s Resolutions

A note from Tara:

The last week of the year is one of my favorite weeks. It’s typically a time filled with peace, rest, and quiet reflection. I come out of the week with a deep appreciation for who I was throughout the year and feel a renewed energy for who I want to become in the new year.

Becoming the next version of yourself is hard work.

I have made my fair share of New Year’s resolutions. The “0 to 60” approach is always appealing to me – go big, all in, and get fast results for the thing you’ve never been able to accomplish before. “Sign me up!” I’ve had resolutions like start going to the gym 5 days a week (step 1: get a gym membership!), prepping healthy lunches for myself on Sundays, and spending more time reading on the weekends. To be honest with you…I gave up on them a few weeks into the new year.

The “0 to 60” approach, as intriguing as it is, almost always fails to stick.

Here’s what’s true:

We can and do change. But most often we change slowly. And only under the right conditions.

Many years ago, I started investing time in the last week of the year to reflect, notice, and feel the year I’d just lived. I then transition into setting the course for the emerging new one. The work is so much more than making plans and creating resolutions. It’s time to determine what you want to learn over the next year, establish how you want to show up, set your intention, and then let that intention guide you slowly in your process of becoming.

Putting in the extra work upfront helps to create the right conditions under which true and lasting change can happen!

Who do you want to become this year?

What is the intention you are setting for yourself in 2024?

How are you creating the conditions necessary for true and lasting change to happen for you?

Just a little food for thought.