How to Overcome Setbacks and Achieve Your New Year's Resolution
Three powerful mindset shifts you can practice to clear those first important hurdles
Ever set a New Year’s Resolution that swirls the drain by January 3rd? Instead of giving up, reset with a new strategy. Here are three important mindset shifts you can practice to help you clear those initial hurdles.
Expect Resistance Any Time There’s Change
I’ll start with my favorite piece of the puzzle. The bigger your dream, the further you're projecting yourself outside your comfort zone. Remember, Resistance is on your payroll with the full-time job of maintaining your status quo. It’s not out to sabotage you for kicks and giggles, it is in place to protect you from discomfort. And even good change is uncomfortable.
Expect Resistance to throw all of its most potent limiting beliefs at you to shut down your big dream for 2024. My Resistance has a couple of softballs, a few nasty curveballs and one fastball aimed right at my head, and by midday January 1st, she’d hurled them all.
Instead of dreaming smaller, I meet my Resistance and assure it that I am clear-eyed by saying, "Change is a slow process - transformation happens gradually - and I will follow through on this one new action today. No big deal."
Start Where You Are
This brings me to the second important mindset shift I want to share with you: Start Where You Are. Perfectionism tells you that you need to complete a long list of prerequisites to get started. Ditch perfectionism, it’s so last century. Start now with what you already have. What daily habit can you begin today that can unlock the skills and resources you need to reach your 2024 goal?
Through bite-sized progress, you accumulate tangible wins. Eyes on the horizon but feet grounded in today. Trust those lil’ steps to compound at a steady pace.
Invite Failure To Have Its Rightful Seat At The Table
The final mindset shift is the one I eventually discovered through many starts and stumbles that resulted in my most profound year of change. Effective change isn't born from overnight transformation, rather it grows from all of those starts and stumbles.
Coming up short, sliding off track, and getting it wrong are key ingredients in the recipe for your success. We mistakenly interpret failure as a sign to quit, but at its best, failure shows you the pathway through. Begin to experience failure as happening for you so that you ask yourself the right questions, like “If this failure is happening for me, what is this teaching me?”
DO
Start with clarity about current capabilities while believing in room for growth
Break your 2024 resolution into monthly milestones tied to a lil’ daily habit
Reframe failure as an important opportunity to adjust and improve
DON’T
Attempt to overhaul everything overnight
Let perceived shortcomings reinforce a fixed mindset about possibilities
Postpone today’s opportunity to follow through - even the tiniest step matters
This year I’ve teamed up with my favorite coach, Jenai Fitzpatrick from Shift to Clarity, to create the Unstuck in 2024 Digital Planner. Combining my Lil’ Habit methodology with Jenai’s executive functions expertise, each month’s planner can help you start where you’re at and develop new life skills to keep you on track.
Let’s identify your north star for 2024 and then manifest your journey through achievable habits. I want to help you build that bridge to your future self.
If this resonates with you, help make it stick by discussing it with a friend.
MORE RESOURCES
Supercharge Your Life: Master the Art of Setting Powerful Intentions
The Power of Setting Intentions — and How to Do It Correctly
Disclaimer: My Substack posts are my personal reflections and should not be taken as clinical guidance or treatment. Consult qualified experts regarding your specific health needs.