1-30-2025 1:06pm

Health Wise: Are New Year’s Resolutions Overwhelming You?

Maria Hadden MS LLP Contributor

Happy new year! We hope your 2025 is off to a positive start. Did you start out setting resolutions for the new year?

Many of us set goals for the new year and then a few weeks into January start to trudge through our “new years resolutions.” Trying to stick to the promises we made to ourselves as the clocks struck midnight can be hard! And this is often exacerbated by cold days, darkness, lack of vitamin D, financial stress, and the dopamine drop off after the holidays. Yet the first month of working towards a goal is one that can often make or break the momentum that leads to accomplishment. If we can stick to our goals in these gloomy months, the rest of the year can feel a lot easier, right?

So, what can we do to re-ignite the motivation and make our goals more achievable as January surrounds us with her chilly, gloomy nature? For starters, ask yourself these questions:

Is my goal too specific or too large? Try breaking the goal(s) down into smaller steps, with varying deadlines. Smaller steps, for example, can be taken each week or each month, while bigger outcomes may need a whole year. Make sure to celebrate the small steps. You can also set a more general goal, like a feeling or energy you want to achieve, rather than a very specific outcome that you won’t allow yourself to be happy about until it is completely achieved.

Tune in to how are you phrasing your narrative about the goal? Is calling it a resolution stressing you out? Calling it a goal, a type of energy you are bringing into your life, or something you are manifesting for yourself may have a kinder and more positive ring to it.

Second, ask yourself, am I phrasing my goals as negatives? For example, instead of “I want to stop eating junk food/sugar/etc” try saying “I will eat more fruits and vegetables”. By eating more healthy things, you’ll reach for less unhealthy things. Set more goals that add to your life, like adding positive activities and hobbies, adding healthy foods, seeing friends, etc, rather than listing things you want to be or do less of.

Finally, are you judging and punishing yourself, or celebrating the positives? If you’ve been trying to motivate yourself by saying unkind things to yourself, think about it - is that how you’d motivate a loved one? Or would you instead encourage them and celebrate small wins? Try and offer the same kind words to yourself.

A new year is a great time to set goals and decide what type of energy you want to leave behind in 2024 and what type of energy you want to have find you in 2025. But there’s often too much pressure to make huge changes and to think of everything that’s wrong with us that we need to “fix.” That type of mindset does not typically lead to long lasting positive changes.

If you’re not sure what changes you really want, here’s a prompt for you to discover your priorities. Ask yourself what you want to be able to say about yourself and your year when looking back on it in December 2025. Then use some of the suggestions above to work on changes that are most likely to get you there.

May motivation and positive experiences find you this year.