My life changed when I stopped making New Years Resolutions.

You know the drill: January 1st, make some lists, set some goals (most of them unrealistic), renew the gym membership, etc. etc. We all do it. I am guilty of it as well. But one new year, something changed. I realized I wasn’t accomplishing anything I said I wanted to accomplish. I had the lists and the goals and the targets I wanted to hit. But I wasn’t hitting any of them. 

So I made a change. 

I set one major goal for the year and started focusing on daily resolutions. We wait for the big moments, holidays, events, to focus on these intentions but every day we wake up is a big moment; an opportunity to be great. I started waking up every morning and considering what I need to do today — it changed my life.

In this article, I want to give you three ways daily resolutions made me more productive.

FOCUS

Daily Resolutions allowed me to focus. Instead of trying to think about the entire year, I thought it might make it simpler to think about a day. Creighton Abrams said (I mean who really knows who said anything, amirite?), “When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.” And that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to focus on each bite rather than the elephant I wanted to eat. Every day I was able to do something small and then immediately evaluate that progress. When setting New Years resolutions, it is so easy to get lost in the enormity of it all. But daily resolutions keep you focused because you are always resetting. Which leads me to the other benefit — malleability.

MALLEABILITY

Things are constantly changing. Now more than ever, we are inundated with reminders of how fast the world around us can shift. Technology and pandemics and just life being life means nothing is as certain as we once thought it was. Which means we also need to be able to pivot with what is happening. A New Years Resolution feels solid and unmovable. When I wasn’t hitting those marks it made me feel like I was failing. But daily resolutions allowed me to wake up every morning and set new intentions based on where I was in the journey, real-time. And this gave me tremendous energy.

ENERGY

Daily Resolutions allowed me to wake up every morning and set new intentions which was energizing and empowering. I wasn’t leashed to a past expectation; I was able to take a stock of where I was and set goals and intentions that fit my situation. That led me to attacking my day. 

Focus, Malleability, Energy.

I have found success in my life over the last couple years doing this. I encourage you to do the same. Ultimately, it is about being intentional each and every day about you and your success. So I dare you to try it out. I dare you to challenge yourself everyday and not just on January 1st.

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best in 2022!!✨✨