Review, refresh, and recommit
I read recently that most people give up on New Year’s resolutions by mid-February.
I don’t think of us—that’s you and me!—as resolution-setters in the traditional sense, but I know many of us spend time in December and January thinking about what we want the coming year to hold, so I think this applies to us as well.
It’s pretty easy to dream big when thinking about all that a new year could hold, but as we move away from the shiny excitement of that planning and dreaming phase, we often start feeling…discouraged or unmotivated.
The more disconnected you feel from your goals, dreams, and plans, the less likely you are to work toward them.
And as you continue to lose steam, you then get discouraged about yourself—which means you’re even more unlikely to do the things necessary to move forward with your dreams and plans.
So I say let’s celebrate being past the mid-February slump by reviewing, refreshing, and recommitting*. Here's how.
Get all your dreams and plans into one place.
Pull out anything you wrote down or mapped out—a list of goals, a word of the year, a plan of how you saw the year unfolding, a quote you put on your wall to inspire you.
Read through it all.
Do this with an open mind and heart. Don’t immediately get discouraged by what hasn’t come true yet or what you haven’t taken action on. Imagine that you’re coaching someone else and you’re simply gathering information about what they have in mind. No judgment; just review.
Write down your victories.
Start from a positive place. Write down all things you’ve done to work toward those dreams so far. Yes, the little things count—even surfing Pinterest for inspiration. Moving in the right direction doesn’t always look like taking major, life-changing steps. Sometimes a good Pinterest session is the right place to start.
Now look at everything honestly.
What’s still relevant? What can you let go of? What needs to be changed? Try to balance that coaching-someone-else-objectively feeling against the whoa-I’m-so-excited-by-all-the-shiny-possibilities feeling. The most realistic and sustainable plans will come somewhere in the middle of those two!
Simplify whatever you can.
At the beginning of the year, I had a clear picture of many things I wanted out of this year. But I got too specific, breaking everything down into a bunch of different categories. I recently went back in and realized that I could simplify everything down into about five areas, which I feel much better about looking at on a regular basis. Too much detail can be overwhelming!
Take some sort of action!
After we had Nathan, I read over and over that sleep begets sleep. Well, I also think action begets action. So take action now. Schedule time to work on some of your plans, or jot down ideas that came up as you were doing this exercise, or do a little research that feels fun—get going and do your best to keep the momentum going!
Repeat this process as often as you need. Signs that it might be time:
You start feeling a little fuzzy about your vision.
You start feeling unmotivated or uninterested in what you’re working toward.
You start spending a lot more time scrolling through Instagram, feeling a little aimless.
You start sketching out all new plans…instead of following the ones you’ve already made.
It's never too late in the year to review your dreams, refresh your plan, and recommit to what you want!
I’d love to hear what comes out of your review, refresh, and recommit session. You can do this!
Want to get these posts in your inbox?
Sign up below!
See my Privacy Policy and Terms of Service here.