As the new year starts to roll into motion, setting a New Year’s Resolution can be intimidating and challenging. It can be hard to find realistic and achievable goals to set and stick to throughout the whole year. A great way to kickstart 2025 is by learning the guide to setting New Year’s resolutions.
“When the New Year begins, it’s a time of hope and to reflect on how the year prior went. It’s a good time to set goals for the following year and reflect a little bit. Look at your goals for this year to try and set goals that you feel can be achievable. It also reflects on your values, what you did great the year before, and [where to] focus on to improve,” said Head Student Counselor of Amador Valley Cheryl Pacheco.
It’s important to look back on the progress made last year as a checkpoint. Continue looking forward to this year as an opportunity to continue growing toward that goal. A resolution sets a good goal that is consistent with the efforts you make. A tip is to focus on a general idea of your end-of-the-year goal and create step-by-step plans to achieve it.
“When you’re looking at the big goal, you want to try and set aside some small goals for yourself. Ones that are easy to achieve and ones that you can kind of check off. So you can have little mini-wins before you get to your big win,” said Pacheco.
Breaking down goals into manageable pieces is more effective than completing a goal all at once. Make a schedule and deadline to finish those small goals. It won’t always be easy to stay on track, but it’s essential to remind yourself that the people around you are supporters.
“I think you should let people know what your goals are. For example, if one of your goals is to stay more on top of your assignments, let your teachers know so that maybe they can help support you in that. I think it’s really hard and we all need to support each other when it comes to achieving goals,” said English Teacher Amy Suto.
It’s also beneficial to note that noticing and tracking your progress as well as having patience and trusting yourself will help achieve your ultimate goal.
“Sometimes it takes a while to achieve our big goals, so don’t get frustrated. Just recognize your mini-goals, appreciate the successes, and that it does take time sometimes to meet that large goal. Know that there are going to be some bumps in the road, but eventually, you’ll get to where you want to be,” said Pacheco .
