Episode 221: A New Approach to the New Year

If you know me you know I'm not a big believer in the New Year's resolution.

Of course I love a good goal, but there's something about the New Year's resolution that pushes people to make grand sweeping declarations about the entirely new person they're going to suddenly be simply because the last number of the year changed. 

I'll hear things like,

"I'm not going to miss a single workout!" or "I'm not going to give into cravings anymore!" Or "I'm cutting carbs for good this time!"

But we know that's not how transformation works. No date is going to suddenly shift the way we think, the way we act, the engrained habits we have. 

With that said, I do love to use this time of year, this 'fresh start' to do a solid check in with myself. To ask myself what's really important to me going forward and to think of ways I can make that a priority in the coming year. 

Here are 3 ways that's showing up for me this year:

1. Word or Phrase of the Year.

If you've followed me for a while you know this has been my tradition for a while now. Last year my word was 'connection' and looking back I'm happy to say I definitely lived in alignment with that.

I joined my Sphere soccer club, I dated... a lot, I joined Equinox in an effort to meet more like-minded folks, and I made an effort to be the type of person who strikes up conversations with strangers more often. 

This year, my phrase is "main character energy." The scene from The Holiday comes to mind where Arthur tells Iris that he can tell she's a 'leading lady' but for some reason she's acting like the 'best friend'. Honestly, that's been me for a long time. 

I've recently done a lot of reflecting and realized I have the tendency of putting other people on pedestals while keeping myself small.

I could dive into the psychology of the fact that I moved every couple years growing up, so giving tons of praise to others and keeping myself humble was an easy way to make friends and connect, so I'll have to unravel the story in my head that that's what's required of me to be liked. 

But for the purposes of this episode, just know that having a word or phrase to connect with can be an easy way of snapping yourself out of old patterns and can be a helpful reminder of how you want to show up for yourself. 

2. The 25-5-20 (AKA the Revamped Resolution)

I'll be honest, I discovered this exercise on Instagram and it apparently is adopted from something Warren Buffet tells people to do. Good enough for me! 

Basically you write out 25 things you want to achieve in the year, then you narrow it down to the 5 most important things (everything else is just a distraction). Then for each of those 5 things, you write out 20 ways to get there. 

I love this because it still gives you the goal-setting aspect of a resolution, but it helps you hone in on what's actually most important to you. And it forces you to not just look at the big outcome, but to focus on the process it'll take to get there.

And I'll tell you, thinking of 20 steps is tough! So you have to get creative which I found to be very helpful since it's easy to get stuck trying the same things over and over again even if they aren't giving us the results we're hoping for.

I will say, this exercise took a lot longer than I anticipated, so consider doing what I did and spend the day at a coffee shop with a friend doing this together. It's nice to pause every once in a while, share your goals, and bounce ideas off each other. 

3. The 111 List.

My friend Sammy is the one I went to the coffee shop with to do the 25-5-20 exercise, and she told me about this exercise that she had landed on for the new year. It's a list of 111 things you want to do/experience in the new year.

Where the 25-5-20 is great for goal setting, the 111 list is more about fun and adventure. To give you an idea it could be places you want to travel to, restaurants you want to try, things you want to buy, classes you want to take, etc. 

And while it would be great to do all 111 things in the year, I'm not putting pressure on myself to do so. But I think it's great to have that list to turn to when you feel like life is boring or stagnant or you're just a little stuck in the day-to-day slog. 

I think swapping your regular resolution for these 3 exercises is a great start to actually creating change in 2024.

But if you are next-level committed to transforming your health this year and you don't want to mess around with trial-and-error, you don't want to just follow another fad diet, you don't want it to be flash-in-the-pan success, and you don't want to go it alone, click here to book a free consultation with me. 

I'll chat with you about your goals and habits, your biggest challenges, and your budget and match you with the program that's best for you, be it my Hormone Belly Blueprint, my Follow Your Gut Course, or my 1:1 Functional Nutrition Coaching! 

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