A new year is upon us! Anyone else get a little bit anxious when they hear that?? I think that can be a natural response when we are remembering the past year, thinking about our failures and joys, and anticipating all the newness that is to come. There is a lot of pressure at the start of a new year – your family, friends and coworkers will more likely than not ask you what your goals are, if you have resolutions or positive changes that you want to make in your life. And while its not at all a negative thing to set goals and strive to meet them, we often load too much on ourselves at the start of a new year. Our to-do lists are bursting and soon we become too burnt out to even be motivated which in turn, encourages us to simply give up on our goals.

But what if the new year was a whole lot lighter? What if it came with a sense of joy, excitement and refreshment rather than those heavy expectations that are constantly prodding at you in the back of your head? What if it wasn’t about picking out our weaknesses and working on them so hard that we forget what our original goal was?

Attainable goals are something that we are all about. And we think that setting these kind of goals are a great habit not just for the new year, but throughout the entirety of it. The middle and end of the year are just as important as the beginning and we want to make sure that we are being intentional throughout all of it. When you set attainable goals that align with who you are, what you value and the state of your life at the time, you won’t feel so overwhelmed and under so much pressure to reach perfection. You can realize that we are human, we make mistakes and that is actually OKAY.

So here are a few tips on creating and walking out those attainable goals ::

1. Attainable

That means we can actually complete them, right? Let’s not forget about that important piece. As we make goals for the week, for the month, for the year – we don’t want the goals to be so inconceivable that we will never achieve them. Instead, we want to make goals that are reachable. Attainable goals doesn’t mean that there is no risk involved, as risk often urges us to out of our comfort zone and into new experiences that actually end up teaching us something new or showing us something beautiful that we could not have seen otherwise.

2. Grace

As you move towards completing a goal, there is likely to be some unexpected turns, some failures, some places of confusion and disappointment. Instead of viewing this as detrimental and giving up on the goal, what if we instead had grace for our shortcomings, stood back up and continued to push forward? I think it would be a lot more beneficial if we out the latter into practice.

3. Endurance

Sometimes those more long term goals can take quite a while to complete. You might be working towards something and not see it come to fruition right away. As you begin to tire of pushing forward, keep in mind that some things just take time. Its not always the most pleasant on the journey, but it is so worth it. If we can endure the parts that are more work than fruit, more sowing than reaping, we will see a greater reward when we finally complete that goal.

As the year progresses and you become more acquainted with the process of setting and completing attainable goals, you will hopefully find that it is a much lighter weight on you. There is no expectation of perfection, no pressure to make the beginning of the year extra incredible, but instead you can create steady habits throughout the year that keep you engaging your goals but don’t wear you down. You can find a balance of work and rest as you diligently move towards your attainable goals in a healthy way.

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words by bethany – community creator