Simple Three-Step Process for New Year's Resolutions
Don't try to do too much and end up doing nothing
New Year’s resolutions have got out of control. Everyone knows they are supposed to do them but no one knows what to do. Here is a simple, three-step process that you can do in less than an hour to gain some clarity on what you want to focus on in the new year. The acronym for the New Year exercise is APW, which stands for aspects of life, priorities, and word of the year.
Let me know if you want to discuss this process or have any thoughts, ideas or feedback on how to make this more effective, while keeping it short and simple.
Three-Step New Years Goal Process
Aspects of Life
Background: This is what a consultant would call a “gap analysis”. You take inventory of where you are today, where you want to be in the future and brainstorm the things that would need to happen to bridge the gap.
Step 1: Make a list of your “aspects of life”. This list is typically consists of 3-6 categories. Here are my aspects of life: vocational, financial, relational, spiritual, creative, and physical. How you draw the boxes is up to you. Write down your list along the left side of a piece of paper or excel workbook.
Step 2: Create three columns along the top of your paper or excel sheet that say (1) where am I today, (2) action idea list and (3) where I want to be at the end of the year.
Step 3: Populate columns 1 and 3. You can use short statements that summarize where you are today and where you want to be.
Step 4: In column 2, brainstorm a list of action items and events that must happen in order to bridge the gap between where you are today and where you want to be.
Helpful Trick: Don’t get too stressed about making this perfect. The main purpose of this exercise is to get the ideas flowing. The ideal outcomes might be actual goals or they may be states of being; it doesn’t matter, it just has to work for you.
Example: For the creative aspect of my life, I got clarity that I want to (1) monetize the podcast, (2) publish an article or essay weekly and (3) get clear on the best ways to share my creative work.
Takeaway: This will give you some clarity of your vision for the future, some actionable goals and insights on the daily action you can take throughout the next year to bring this vision to fruition. Remember, we become great at what we do every day.
Priorities
Background: Knowing your priorities is a powerful lens to make decisions through and decide how you want to spend your time.
Step 1: Review the list from the Aspects of Life exercise and see if any themes emerge, write them down.
Step 2: Once you have identified key themes, write down 3 - 5 priorities for the year.
Helpful Trick: Consider the following questions when coming up with key themes: is there something that came up multiple times? are any of these goals related? if I could do one or the other, which one would I do?
Example: One of my priorities for the year is to ‘live in line with my values and idealized personal culture’.
Takeaway: Use these priorities to help you make decisions throughout the year and update them if you get more clarity as the year unfolds and start taking action.
Word of The Year
Background: This is a fun way to synergize your intention in single word to guide the year you want to have.
Step 1: Look at the results of the Aspects of Life and Priorities exercise.
Step 2: Make a list of 3-20 words that capture the essence of the upcoming year.
Step 3: Select a word to serve as your word of the year.
Helpful trick: When you write out your list of words in Step 2, consider which words are related to each other as well as if any of the words are inputs vs. outputs. I sometimes draw arrows between my words as a way to see which are related or feed into one another.
Example: The words I was considering for 2024 were ownership, freedom and agency. Ultimately I chose the word “initiative” because I felt like it captured all three sufficiently.
Takeaway: I’ve been choosing a word of the year for 5 years, it’s been cool to see how my relationship with the word evolves over the course of a year and beyond. Last year my word was “creativity” which was meant to orient me to live in a state of intentionality and reverence. Ultimately I also had a great year of inspiration, creative output and a greater desire to share my work with others.
Bonus Activities
Make a list of your favorite memories from the past year
Make a list of the things that happened during the past year that made you proud
Determine your prioritized values
Memorialized the culture you want to guide this season of your life
Make a list of experiences you want to have and books you want to read in the new year