Resolution

Start the New Year to the Fullest

The start of a new year offers plenty of opportunities to make big and necessary changes to your life. The beauty of being in a relationship is that it also provides a chance to strengthen the bond you share. As the new year dawns, there are countless actions you can commit to in order to get more out of the future together. Consider these ideas and find the perfect way to make the transition to the next year one that produces both a sense of meaning and feelings of accomplishment.  

Keep Each Other Guessing

Spontaneity is key to a healthy relationship. While routine can provide you with comfort and stability, breaking your patterns has a way of invigorating your spirit. One way you can achieve this is by promising to surprise each other at least once every month of the coming year. Take turns scheduling unique date nights or grab little gifts on an impulse — whatever you think will delight your significant other. Not only can this keep your relationship fresh, but it can introduce you to activities that you might not have discovered otherwise.

Discuss Relationship Resolutions

Personal resolutions tend to revolve around ways to become a better version of yourself. Similarly, you can work together to create a relationship that is stronger and more prepared to handle the tests of time. Talk about what you each feel your shortcomings are as a couple. From handling arguments poorly to being too frivolous with funds, setting a concrete goal as a unit can lay the groundwork for a year filled with positive strides in surprising new directions. Shared objectives can also be about the next step you’ll take together, like getting engaged, having children, or buying a home.

Setting resolutions together doesn’t mean that you cannot also make a few on your own. A relationship is strongest when both parties feel their best. If you want to get in better shape, eat healthier meals, or spend more time outside, set your own goals and see how it leads to a more cohesive union.  

A Resolution to Learn About Each Other

Pursuing individual hobbies can help people in a relationship retain a bit of autonomy. However, sharing your passions with your partner is a wonderful way to grow closer. As a fun resolution for the new year, consider setting aside time now and again to chat about your interests. Talk about what you love, listen to what your partner enjoys, and discover new facets of each other. You might even discover that you have some shared interests that you never knew about, which can be a delightful surprise when you’ve been together a long while.  

You can also take this idea to the next level by trying each other’s hobbies. If your partner likes to attend comic conventions, take a trip along to the next gathering. If you love a certain band, get tickets for the two of you to see a show the next time they’re on tour. Even if you have no genuine interest in the activity, you’ll be able to make your partner feel like you care.

Give Some Space

Finally, don’t forget to give each other space when needed. If you’ve been together a long while and cohabitation is part of the arrangement, you may crave personal time. Even the healthiest relationships require partners to take time away from each other. Whether you give each other room to go out with friends on a routine basis or you just leave the house so your partner can take a nap, there is a lot to be said for respecting each other’s boundaries.

Though there is no wrong time to make positive changes in a relationship, the beginning of a new year has a way of setting the right tone. Consider what will work best for you and your partner to lay the foundation for a wonderful year ahead.

SMART Goals and Setting Them This New Year

Smart goals means setting an attainable goals and telling yourself "I can do it".

In order to set smart goals for yourself, you need to get rid of the negativity in your life.

There is a difference between “Goals” and “Smart Goals”. It’s that time of year when everyone sets new goals for the new year. Most people think of January 1 as a clean slate. It’s a day to make changes toward what we want in life. Often, we make such grandiose plans that we’re unable to carry them through. Our expectations are unrealistic. When we forget the resolutions we so carefully crafted, it’s easy to get discouraged and not make any changes at all in your life. This year, take a different approach to the resolutions you set for 2017.

How to Make Smart Goals for Yourself

Businesses have a lot of experience in setting goals. We can look to how businesses approach goal-setting to learn how to better set goals for our personal lives. SMART is an acronym that outlines a basic plan for developing goals that lead to success.

  • Specific – Your goals should be well defined.
  • Measurable – You should have a way to know when the goal is reached.
  • Attainable – The goal should be achievable.
  • Relevant – The goal should pertain to your overall goals.
  • Time-based – You should have a time frame to meet the goal.

Goals vs Smart Goals

Here’s an example of what a lot of people say: “I want to get healthier next year.” Although this is a good notion, it’s not exactly a SMART goal, because it’s very general in nature. How can this idea be changed into a smarter goal that can be reached? First, what aspect of getting healthy do you want to accomplish? Specifically, “I want to eat healthier.” Now, we need to add a number to our goal to make it measurable. “I want to pack my lunch four days a week instead of choosing fast food.”

While this goal sounds attainable, you should check it against your calendar. Are you traveling two or three days a week? Maybe you don’t have a way to keep your lunch at safe temperatures. If you have to take kids to soccer, boy scouts and dance every night, it might be difficult to pack a lunch for yourself every morning. Can you manage this goal based on your current lifestyle? Maybe you should start by saying “In January, I plan to pack a healthy lunch two days a week and make healthier choices when I do go out for lunch,” or “I will replace chips and cookies in my diet with fruit and yogurt.”

The relevancy of the goal is fairly obvious. If you want to get healthy, then eating healthier is probably important to you. But you have to look at where you are in life right now. If you’re being pressured into setting a goal that doesn’t mean anything for you, it’s time to go back and set a better goal. To make a goal more relevant, you might want to attach it to another goal. If you want to lose weight, then making healthier food choices would mean even more to you.

You Can Reach Your Goals

With a time-bound goal, you have an endpoint. With our goal above, the endpoint would be January. One month of eating healthier is much more doable than just getting healthy. At the endpoint, you can then examine the goal and the outcomes to decide if you want to try again next month or if you need to adapt the goal to make it “smarter.” Instead of setting one big goal that you never reach, set smaller goals that are reasonable. When you make your goals reasonable and attainable, you’re more likely to carry through. 

Göran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden, once said, “Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” Let the new year serve as a catalyst for change, but make your resolutions realistic.