HRI Blog

A great way to make sure that your New Year’s Resolutions for your healthiest year yet are attainable and realistic is to follow the SMART Goals model! SMART goals help you break down your resolutions into clear, specific, and measurable goals that you are able to achieve in a timely manner. This will help you hold yourself accountable to ensure that you are taking steps throughout the year to continue to work towards the best version of yourself and your relationships!

SMART Goals stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. As you set your goals for 2020, try your best to make sure that your goal covers each of the areas listed above. For example, after engaging in some self-reflection, you may come up with some general ideas for your New Year’s Resolution. Let’s say that your resolution is to improve communication in your relationships. This is a pretty broad goal, so to make it more specific, you may narrow it down to “I resolve to use more “I Statements” when communicating my feelings to my loved ones.” Now that we have a more specific goal, let’s explore how we can make this goal measurable. One way to measure your use of “I Statements” is to keep a weekly journal where you reflect on your role in your relationships and check-in about moments where you did or didn’t use “I statements.” Know that there is not “right” or “wrong” way to go about checking in with your progress and measuring your goals. We encourage you to use whichever method works best for you! Now it’s time to check if your goal is attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Ask yourself, “Is this goal relevant to my life and aspirations, and is it something I can accomplish? If so, how long will it take me to accomplish this goal?” In the case of our goal of using “I statements,” it is relevant to our bigger goal of improving communication in our relationships, and it is something that can be achieved throughout the next year. 

Now that you have a better idea of how to walk through the SMART Goal setting process, we encourage you to apply SMART Goals to your New Year’s Resolutions for 2020!

The first step in crafting realistic and attainable New Year’s resolutions is to engage in self-reflection to identify your goals for yourself and your relationships. As you think about your goals, we encourage you to reflect on the different areas of your life that influence your health and well-being to ensure that you are creating holistic and well-rounded resolutions. 

Think about your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational health. Are there areas that are lacking or that you wish to improve? Maybe your goal this year is to focus on boundaries to improve your relationships, while also making space for you to take time for yourself. Maybe you want to focus on building communication in your relationships to improve your relational and emotional health. Regardless of what your resolutions are for the new year, know that when you focus on improving yourself and your relationships, you can be the best version of yourself for the ones you love!

As you think about your New Year’s resolutions, we encourage you to reflect on the following questions:

• How can I continue to build and strengthen my relationships in the new year?
• What do I want to do differently to have even healthier relationships in 2020?
• What can I do to build a healthier relationship with my partner, child, parent, sibling, friend, or co-worker?
• How can I improve my self-care?
• What can I do to feel more confident and build my self-esteem in the new year?
• How can I best take care of my mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational health in 2020?

For more information about setting New Year’s resolutions that focus on improving the health of your relationships and family, check out our “Healthy Relationship Resolutions” blog series and our “Resolve to Have Your Family’s Healthiest Year Yet” series!

The start of the new year is full of hope and optimism! Many of us are thinking of this year’s New Year’s Resolutions and focusing on ways we can better ourselves and our relationships. As you step into 2020, we encourage you to think about setting realistic and attainable New Year’s Resolutions to improve your overall health and well-being, as well as your relationships! 

With the optimism, hope, and excitement of the new year fueling us as we make our resolutions, it can be easy to set unrealistic goals that are near impossible to achieve. When we set goals and make resolutions that we are not able to fulfill, it can lead to disappointment, discouragement, and self-doubt. While it’s okay to make mistakes and fail, we encourage you to try your best to set yourself up for success when making your 2020 New Year’s resolutions for a healthier you! 

Over the next several days, HRI will be sharing tips to help you set realistic and attainable resolutions in 2020! These tips can help you set goals to build a healthier and happier you, and help you identify resolutions to strengthen your relationships!