Statistically, New Year's resolutions are not very effective. Approximately 43% of people abandon their resolutions by the end of January! If you want to do things differently in 2024 and you want a little bit of motivation and encouragement for goals that actually stick, read on.

Here we are, on the cusp of 2024.

That thought is both sobering and thrilling at the same time. Sobering in that time never pauses and whether we are intentional or not, life is happening all around us constantly. And thrilling in that a new year is a soft reset for our minds, an opportunity to start again.

That thought also merits some reflection. The month of December has been a month of reflection for me, because I can't seem to get into the Christmas mode try as I might.

I've been asking myself all sorts of questions:

What did I learn this year?

What changes happened this year?

What were my wins? What were my losses?

And most importantly, where was God through it all?

This reflection is a crucial aspect of my goal-setting process. I LOVE goals. I love having something to work towards. I love the exhilaration of having a tracker to visualize my progress. Reflecting on the past year gives me a framework for the new, upcoming year so I know what it is I want to focus on.

However, the goal-setting process will look a little bit different for me this year for one reason in particular: the why has changed. Dave Trenholm, the pastor of the church I attend, shared a tidbit of wisdom that has really stuck with me. He said that if you want to know where you're going and how to get there, you have to know the why.

Why is it that you want to set 2024 goals?

Why is it that you want to change?

I'll tell you right now that thinking about why I want to set goals has really changed the way I view my goals and even the content of some of my goals. But we'll dig into the why a little later! As one of my sisters says often, "suspense!"

I've learned a lot about goals over the years as a type-A overachiever. Some of my favourite resources include Jon Acuff (his books and his podcast are fab!), Atomic Habits by James Clear, and a leadership course I took through university. I've boiled down some of the things I've learned to bring you three ways that you can set goals that are manageable, motivating, and fun!

#1 - Start Small

Every ounce of you will urge you to set lofty, impressive goals. In the planning stage, your mind is full of possibilities and you think that suddenly you can run a full marathon, read two books per week, or forego sugar in your diet. However, once the excitement wears off and real life kicks in, you are left floundering. You realize that there isn't enough time to accomplish your big goals, so you give up.

When you are feeling the urge to set a big goal, I would encourage you to start small. Your goals don't have to be big or impressive to matter. Consistent small steps add up!

Instead of making a goal to run a kilometer every day, make it a goal to take a 5-10-minute walk.

Instead of making a goal to read two books every week, make it a goal to read 10 pages every day.

Instead of making a goal to completely eradicate sugar from your diet, make it a goal to eat greens with every meal.

If you start small, you will lay a foundation of consistency, and the small steps will start to add up. Slow and steady wins the race. You won't make quick progress, but you will make lasting progress that can incrementally increase as your capacity for that goal increases.

Going from zero to one hundred is not sustainable. Sure, it make work for a few days, but no one plans to set goals that are only going to help them for a short period of time. You want goals that will contribute to a better lifestyle and a better you, and that requires a slow and steady pace.

#2 - Choose goals that matter to you

While other people can be wonderful accountability partners, inspirations, and cheerleaders, you have to choose goals that matter to you. If you are setting your goals based on measuring up to someone else's success, you will constantly feel less than and inferior. If you are setting your goals based on what someone else said was important, you won't work very hard when it gets difficult to keep going because it doesn't matter to you.

Let me give you an example. Maybe you saw an Instagram post about how getting up at 5 a.m. boosts productivity so you feel pressured to set a goal to get up at 5 a.m. also. But, you really aren't a morning person, and you like to stay up late. That goal is going to fizzle out fairly quickly, I can guarantee you. I'm speaking from experience here, friends. I tried the 5 a.m. wake-up thing, but I didn't adjust my bedtime. And let me tell you, I only lasted for 13 days before hopping off that crazy train. I don't like going to bed at 9:30 p.m., so I don't get up at 5 a.m., because it's not something that added value to my lifestyle and wasn't a sustainable rhythm for me.

If your goal is to memorize one of Shakespeare's plays, go for it!

If your goal is to keep your houseplants alive, you've got this!

If your goal is to read 40 books next year, wow, I want to be like you!

But you have to choose goals that matter to you. If you don't like reading, don't set a goal to read 40 books. Set a goal to listen to 40 audiobooks. If you don't like audiobooks, don't set that goal either!

If you don't like running, don't set a goal to run every day! There are thousands of ways to move your body and they don't all involve running. Choose things that matter to you and that you won't hate doing (because if you hate the goal you set, spoiler alert: you won't do it).

#3 - Progress, not perfection

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: mediocre consistency is always better than incredible inconsistency. Aiming for perfection is exhausting and discouraging. Instead, aim for incremental progress that will keep you moving forward.

This principle is linked to the first - starting small. Perfection keeps you stuck because it tells you that if you can't get it 100%, there's no use in trying at all. If you are aiming for perfection, you might do okay for the first while, but when life gets busy and chaotic your goals will be the first thing to fly out of the window. If you're aiming to run for an hour every day and you find that you only have thirty minutes, a stuck mindset will tell you that you might as well not run at all since you can't accomplish the complete goal anyway. A growth mindset, on the other hand, will tell you that a thirty-minute run is better than no run at all.

And here's the kicker: if you average 100% of your goal for two days but then do nothing for the rest of the week, your total average is 29%. But if you average 100% of your goal for two days and then only 40% for the remaining five days, your average is still 57%. That's almost double what it would be if you gave up!

A 5-10 minute workout is better than nothing. A 5-10 minute workout is a good starting point. Whatever your goal is, start small, and allow yourself the space to just show up. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to look glamourous or photographable. The point is showing up to work on things that are important to you.

Remember when I said I'd dive into the why? Well, now is that time! This year, my perspective has shifted. My life (and consequently my goal-setting) has revolved around myself for the most part up until this point. But that is *slowly* changing.

This year, the main reason I want to set goals is because I want to be the best, healthiest version of myself possible. Why? Because I want to be able to share, serve, and love God and others well. But I cannot give what I do not have.

Each of my goals that I set this year will be a building block towards the larger goal of loving and serving God and others better than before.

I have a goal to read 40 books next year, so I can enlarge my perspective and knowledge base to have a better understanding of people and the world around me.

I have a goal to receive 75 rejections in some form or another, so that I can learn to pivot and not take everything personally.

I have a goal to write 150 letters next year, so that I can bless others with something tangible.

I have a goal to move my body at least 4 times per week so that I can take care of myself physically and be able to keep up with my siblings and the kids we work with at youth and camp.

I have a goal to read the whole Bible so that I can learn more about the God who loved me enough to die for my wrongdoings and rose from the dead to give me newness of life (I actually have a pretty sweet tracker that I made for this purpose, and I'm soooo excited about it. If you want to join me in my quest to read the Bible in a year, you can download my tracker here).

I have a goal to cultivate Sabbath in my life so that I can rest and allow God to be God and allow myself to be a mere mortal.

Setting goals to better yourself is not selfish - it's responsible stewardship. Becoming the people that God designed us to be involves a lot of nitty-gritty hard work in the trenches of life. You can make changes in your life to learn, grow, and change.

The new year is exciting, but we are still the same people who will wake up on January 1st with heads full of dreams. Don't set goals that won't contribute value to your life - set goals that matter and that you can accomplish, little step by little step

♪ - Abide With Me by Keith & Kristyn Getty.