DOWN BAD

It’s that time again, a new year, a fresh start and an influx of motivation but how do you utilise it? How do you stick to your goals? 

Let’s be honest, we’ve all been there, we set the resolutions but one month in it’s a flop, you try again, it flops again and the motivation starts to drift then you slowly sink back into your old and comfortable habits. 

The internet has been taken over by manifestation and whilst putting out the right energy into the world and putting your head in the right frame of mind by ‘acting as if you already have the life you want’ we still need to take actions towards the life we want because that’s what it means to ‘act as if’.

In this post we’ll explore a step by step guide on how to set goals and stick to them by applying the James Clear – Atomic habits method as well as ways you can make goal setting enjoyable. 

It’s important to remember not to be hard on yourself, self discipline is the biggest key to forming healthy habits but we’re all human, if your body needs to rest, listen to it!

Goal Setting

Step 1 – Define your goals

• Categorise your goals – This will depend entirely on what you want to work on, you can either use all of the following categories or just the ones that you want to work towards bettering.
• Personal development, Financial, Health & Wellness, Relationships & Social Goals, Career & Professional, Adventure & Travel.

Step 2 – Timescales

• Set timescales for each of your goals, be reasonable! Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Example: 

Goal – Have £3000 in savings

20% of wages = £350 per month.

Calculations advise this can be done in 8.5months, account for emergencies and unexpected payments. Set the goal for longer.

Step 3 – Set out a stepladder to achieving each goal

• Set up actionable steps to achieving your goals, going all in on a goal straight away easily leads to burnout. Slow and steady wins the race.
• This doesn’t have to be done all in one go, you can set up a reflection time each week, month or each quarter depending on the goal and decide the next steps, don’t overwhelm yourself!

Example:

Goal – Exercise more

Week 1 – 2 home workouts.

Week 2 – 2 home workouts & 1 walk outdoors.

Week 3 – 1 home workout, 1 workout in the gym, 1 walk outdoors.

Week 4 – 2 workouts in the gym, 1 walk outdoors.

Sticking To Goals

James Clear’s Atomic Habits introduces a practical framework for building good habits and breaking bad ones. The method is grounded in the idea that small, consistent changes compound over time to produce remarkable results. Clear’s approach is organized around four key principles, called the Four Laws of Behavior Change:

Make It Obvious

• Design your environment to make the desired behavior clear and visible.
• Use cues to trigger the habit (e.g., place your running shoes by the door).
• Use habit stacking: pair a new habit with an existing one (e.g., “After I brush my teeth, I will meditate for one minute”).

Make It Attractive

• Link habits to something you enjoy to increase motivation.
• Use temptation bundling: pair a habit you need to do with one you want to do (e.g., “I’ll watch my favorite show while folding laundry”).
• Surround yourself with people who embody the habits you want to adopt.

Make It Easy

• Reduce friction: eliminate barriers to action (e.g., keep healthy snacks within reach).
• Start small: focus on doing just 1% better each day rather than making drastic changes.
• Use the two-minute rule: start habits that take less than two minutes to complete (e.g., “Instead of reading a book, I’ll read one page”).

Make It Satisfying

• Create immediate rewards for completing a habit (e.g., check off a box on a habit tracker).
• Use positive reinforcement to make the habit enjoyable.
• Avoid skipping habits to maintain momentum (Clear calls this the “don’t break the chain” method).

How to Make It Fun

It’s all well and good setting goals but how do you make it fun? There needs to be some gratification behind it, something that motivates you to keep going, it’s too easy for life to get in the way. It’s time to get creative! Some of you may groan at that, I get it. Find what sparks joy (word to Marie Kondo). Whether it’s giving yourself rewards for hitting a goal or just enjoying the process, find what motivates you!

For me personally, I love organising and I’m a visual person. I’ve never been able to stick to journals, to do lists and have dozens of unfinished notebooks. I found what worked for me 6 months ago to stay consistent, reflecting on my goals regularly and I’m going to show you exactly how I make this process fun.

1. Set up a day each month to set goals and reflect on the previous months goals.
2. Create a moodboard: Pinterest is your best friend! I use procreate on my iPad to make the image.
3. Put it somewhere you can see everyday, I screenshot or save mine and set it as my iPad wallpaper.
4. Set your goals for the month, don’t overcomplicate it, they could be really simple. I use Goodnotes on my iPad to do this.
5. At the end of the next month reflect on your goals, don’t be hard on yourself if you didn’t tick off all of them. You may just need to break down the steps to be more achievable. 
6. Create a moodboard from your own camera roll, sometimes a month feels underwhelming but once you see it all put together visually it makes you grateful for all that you’ve done and achieved.