Stepping into the New Year powerfully: I'm going BACK to resolutions!

I say random , crazy shit , which is why I called this podcast the way that I did , and I really hate long drawn out intros , so let's fucking go First . Far back as I can remember , I would create a New Year's resolution , whether it was in grade four or fourth year university .

It was something that I did every single year and I tried to always have my New Year's resolution solidified by the time January 1st at midnight started . I really wanted to start the New Year with my New Year's resolution .

There were a few years , I guess , where I probably waited for a couple of days to really figure it out , and it was probably mid-40s when it was really popular online to just choose a word of the year , one word of the year . The reason that people came up with the one word of the year was because everyone was failing on their New Year's resolutions .

Just today I looked and it's something like 23% of people are estimated to give up on their New Year's resolution by the first week . I don't even know . I think it might be the 18th January 18th almost everyone has given up and I think it's January 13th of 2024 , which is deemed National Quitter's Day . I mean , what the hell ?

So , knowing that most people were not able to commit to their New Year's resolutions , it made sense that we tried to find something that would maybe be a little bit more beneficial , more successful .

So one word of the year became a thing , and I did that for a number of years and I chose words like bold and courage and inspire , and those words were wonderful . But there was a couple of things that I didn't like about the one word of the year . Number one was it didn't feel hopeful to me .

I mean , it didn't feel as exciting as me sitting down , going , okay , what's my New Year's resolution , what am I going to commit to this year ? Having a vibe , having a one word of like bold . It sounded fancy , but I mean , how can you really quantify bold ? And half the time I forgot my fucking word of the year .

So I really needed to write it down somewhere . My podcast co-host on the Happy Half Hour at Neat Cuban she does this thing where she writes her word of the year on a rock , which I am going to do , and she actually I just heard this today she keeps her rock with her .

So she's got this rock with her word of the year on it and she might have it in her car , she might have it in her purse . Really , really good way to remember what your word of the year is . And for me now I just see word of the year is like the vibe that I want to carry through for the year . First , the thing about that is number one .

I don't know . I kind of changed my vibes throughout the year depending on how I feel . I feel like we should evolve . But also , you can't quantify bold and it's not really goal attainable . I mean , goals should be in smart format , right ? So if we use the word bold , is it specific ? Fuck , no , it's generic as hell . Is it measurable ?

Can I measure how bold I've been ? Not really . Is it attainable ? I guess so . But is it attainable long term ? In every single day ? Probably not . Is it realistic ? Is it realistic for me to be bold ? Yeah , sure , I guess . Is it time sensitive ? Finally , I could say that I want to be bold every single day for 365 days .

But at the end of the year , if I felt like I achieved bold every single day , where would I be ?

I just felt not as fun , not as helpful , not as great , and I actually feel like my New Year's resolution process the process of creating it was more fun and I decided that I wanted to go back to it Because , even if I failed , I wanted to be able to commit to myself , even if it happens to be 13 days or 21 days , and I don't think that failure is bad

. So for me , if I wanted to do 18 days of one goal and then stop and then start another goal again , that's still okay . I'm still farther ahead by doing that than choosing a word of the year like bold . I'm never going to fail at that . Probably right , because it's not quantifiable .

I can't tell that I'm going to fail it , but it's also not tangible enough for me to actually evolve . So I have gone back to word of the year Now . I did this in 2022 . Last year , I looked back at my year and I decided that what I wanted to do was I wanted to journal .

I wanted to journal every single day , and the reason that I wanted to do this was because I could see that there was . I was holding myself back and I knew that any successful business coaches , or successful coaches in general , did a shit ton of mindset work in . Every single one of them journaled .

And so I decided that I had done a really piss poor job at trying to journal , committing to journal , and so I knew that I needed to figure out a way that worked for me and I knew that I needed to commit to it . So at the end of 2022 , even though I didn't say at that time that it was a New Year's resolution I made a deal with myself .

I made I set like I dared myself basically to commit to 365 days of journaling , and I made it almost . Anyway , we're almost at 365 days . There were definitely some days that I did not come through . That was not perfect .

Some days I wrote one sentence , some days I did not write a sentence , but the majority of days I committed to journaling , I felt I filled a whole entire book and a hat and I found it was so powerful , not just from the things that came out of the journaling process , but it was the commitment to the journaling , the commitment to something 365 days that I

felt that was super powerful . So I want to talk to you quickly about why I think like how we keep our New Year's resolutions . This is the Sandra Breastley version . So number one was know your goal , but choose to focus on the steps instead .

The goal that I had was to make more money in my business and to be more successful in my business , to have more clarity in my business and to commit to journaling in order to do that 365 days . So I knew what my goal was , but my steps were , every single day , to journal Also . Number two was don't focus on how far you've got to go .

Focus on feeling success each day . I used to see this when I was a Beachbody coach , and women would always start off January first . Yeah , I'm going to lose weight . I've done it a lot of years too . I'm going to lose weight . But the problem is when we focus on I want to lose 10 pounds in January , I want to lose 50 pounds in total .

When we focus there and we don't move towards that goal because all we are thinking about is weight loss , weight loss , weight loss , weight loss when we do that , we feel failure . We're more likely to quit . So instead of focusing on what your end goal is .

If you focus on the steps and you focus on success every single day , you'll eventually get there , and you'll get there faster and you won't quit in the process . We have to love the journey . So focusing on those steps and making that the success , that is the key . Number three was perfection cannot be the expectation If you are going to start .

If I had started my 365 day journey of journaling and I decided that I had to be perfect and I could not fail on day 113 when I did not journal and then I wouldn't journal from then on in right Because I'd failed .

But what if I just decided okay , that wasn't a great day , I missed it today , I fell asleep , but I'm going to get back on the horse tomorrow . I never , at the beginning , I never expected perfection of myself or any of the women that joined me , and in fact , we said we were going to give ourselves grace . Not excuses , but grace .

When you focus on giving yourself grace but still maintaining focus on what you want to do every single day , that's where the power is . And then the fourth one was choose something you enjoy , because you have to enjoy the process . If I had started a 365 day journaling process , and how I did it was grabbing 365 day journal prompts .

I'm telling you I would not have made it . I hate journal prompts . I don't like coming up with them . They're not natural to me . I don't like reading them , I don't like Googling for them , I don't like . I don't use AI , but if I did , it would be easy to go .

Hey , I need a journal prompt every single day for 365 days , and I would come up with things that were not inspiring as at all . So I needed to come up with a process that I loved , and I did .

I came up with journaling techniques , just options that I could choose every single day , and the people in the group with me , the women that joined me , they could choose from too , because some days we needed to focus on gratitude , and some days we needed to release negative emotions that we didn't want to carry , and some days we felt like we needed to turn

on some music and cry while we typed , and some days we needed to dream a little bigger , and so the more I went on , the more I realized that it wasn't really about the journal prompts , but it was about the techniques and having that variety of strategies that you can rely on , depending on how you feel .

That's what made it fun , that's what made it cathartic as hell and that's what allowed us to manifest into these amazing things . Any of us who really committed to the journaling process feel like it is magic , and that was probably the best gift of these 365 days of 2023 . I think that I will forever create New Year's resolutions .

I do love having a word of the year and a vibe of the year . I love it , but it didn't feel like it was motivating and inspiring enough to me . It didn't feel like it was something that drove me to be better . It was a word that allowed me to dream , but it didn't get my ass off the couch . So I feel like New Year's resolutions are back in the game .

They definitely are for me , and I hope that they are for you too . So those are my ways of keeping your New Year's resolution . The fifth one that I haven't said yet , but I think it is important , is to have a partner , to have an accountability person to go with you .

When I decided that I was going to do this journaling process , I invited people to come along with me Because I wanted them to have a partner . I knew that I was going to do it for myself and I knew that I would probably show up for sure if I had other people to show up for .

Sometimes we need a little bit of push from someone else , and sometimes we need to be the one that everyone else can rely on .

Regardless of that fact , if what you want in 2024 is transformation , choose a New Year's resolution that you love that will get you there .

Get a partner that will cheer you on , help you along , that won't allow you to buy into your excuses , that will be there to support you and you will be there to support them and make sure you give yourself grace in the process . I can't wait to see where we all are at the end of 2024 . Thank you so much for listening .

I hope you've had some laughs , maybe some ideas , and that you've been inspired to take some type of action to where the life you've always dreamed of . If you feel so called , I would love it if you would share with your besties . Leave a review down below . I look forward to bringing you along this journey and I will see you in the next episode .