Reassessing Your New Years Resolutions

As year comes to an end, many people abandon their New Years resolution goals from January. They're looking to start fresh in the next year, so they avoid what they haven't yet finished. But that might not be the right way to handle things.

Starting everything over again can lead to the same kinds of problems for next year. It can mean that you won't get things done, or that you won't be able to use work you've already accomplished toward your future plans. If you're finding yourself in that situation, and you're not sure what to do next, here are some ideas to consider about your plan for next year and how to achieve your goals.

Take a Look at the Goals You Had
What kind of goals did you have at the beginning of January? When you take a careful look at them, you can consider where you struggled. If your goal was too ambitious, or there were external factors that got in the way of what you were trying to do, did this prevent you from succeeding. Did you try to do too much with the available time and resources you had? Did you have a major event in your life that was unexpected, and that slowed down what you could complete? You can build the framework to succeed in the future, by asking yourself these questions and learning lessons from the past.

Don't let your frustration at not completing your goals become a barrier to your future. You can still attain the dreams that matter most to you. The fact that it's taking a bit longer than planned, or that you've had to make some changes along the way, isn't a reason to give up. Your goals are still important to you, and your plans and dreams are still waiting for you to achieve them. When you reassess where you are and where you want to be, you can find ways to move forward with confidence once again.

Finish Your Year Out Strong
When you look back on your goals from the start of the year and the things that stopped you from reaching them, you can create a framework to achieve those goals in the following year. You don't need to start with brand new goals and resolutions from scratch, which can lead to those not getting completed. In other words, it's best to build on what you've already accomplished and make adjustments to reach your goals. That often works better than scrapping good ideas and plans for new dreams.

When you take what you've already done and build on it, you can more easily achieve your goals. That allows you to plan for next year in ways that add to what you've accomplished. Even if you didn't reach your goals or fulfill your New Years resolutions, you probably worked toward those resolutions in a variety of ways. Don't lose all that work you've already completed, when you could make it the foundation of what you plan to get done in the upcoming new year.