FREE New Year’s Resolutions Template for Rocking Your Goals in 2022

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Who doesn’t want to believe they can become an even better version of themselves? At the stroke of midnight on December 31st suddenly 2020 will be a thing of the past (thank goodness) and 2021 will be a shiny new future.

Yet while hundreds of thousands of people set personal goals every year, few actually achieve them.

Today I am going to give you a free New Year’s resolutions printable AND teach you the secret to writing resolutions that you will actually meet, so you can start living your best life, today.

Are you more of a visual person? Once you clearly set your 2021 goals you can make a vision board to harness the Law of Attraction and make your dreams a reality!

LAW OF ATTRACTION TIP: From digital vision boards to this year’s DIY metal wall grid vision board, I can honestly say having a vision board has helped me SO MUCH with stick to my goals (and manifesting my dreams into reality, like buying our dream home in Europe. Yep, pinch me!)

The secret to writing New Year’s resolutions

I may be a blogger now, but I earned a master’s degree in speech-language pathology.

One of the most pervasively important lessons we had hammered into our skulls was the necessity to write goals that are S.MA.R.T.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Time-based

Why?

If your goals aren’t S.MA.R.T., you can’t determine if your client is meeting them, or even making progress towards them.

Which is bad for the client, bad for you, and bad for getting insurance approval to cover their therapy.

READ MORE: 80 End of the Year Quotes to Inspire You in 2022

But, how does goal writing relate to New Year’s resolutions?

According to data from Statistic Brain, of the 45% of Americans who regularly make New Year’s resolutions, only a piddly 8% are actually successful in achieving those resolutions!

More importantly, they note:

People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals…”.

The secret to making New Year’s Resolutions and actually keeping them is to make explicit resolutions. But what does an explicit resolution look like?

Before I teach you the secret to writing S.MA.R.T explicit New Year’s resolutions, let’s first examine the most common New Year’s resolutions.

Bonus! Free Printable New Year’s resolutions template

Stick around for your printable New Year’s resolution template so you can easily write and track all your goals.

List of the most common New Year’s resolutions

People make all sorts of lofty resolutions for New Year’s Eve!

Resolutions related to improving health and saving more money tend to top the list, but there are quite a few other popular resolutions that may surprise you.

According to this fascinating infographic by Statista, the most common New Year’s resolutions for 2018 were:

1. Save money
2. Lose weight or get in shape
3. Have more sex
4. Travel more
5. Read more books
6. Learn a new skill or hobby
7. Buy a house
8. Quit smoking
9. Find love

Lofty goals indeed.

Take note that these resolutions all list the final goal; none of them mention the steps they are going to take to achieve that goal.

Fine for an infographic, not so fine if you actually want to meet your goals.

NY resolutions are all about the “how”

Simply making a resolution to “save money” is not enough.

In order to meet a specific goal, you will need to focus on the exact behaviors you must modify in order to achieve that goal — that is S.MA.R.T goal writing!

Saving money is too nebulous a goal, too easy to disregard in the long-run.

The goal of saving money tells you nothing about the steps you are going to take.

Now I am going to teach you how to write explicit goals that spell out the steps to achieving each and every one of your resolutions.

Is it going to be easy?

NO WAY!

Change is rarely easy and effortless.

I often told my speech therapy clients that if the modifications we were making didn’t feel slightly weird or uncomfortable, they probably weren’t pushing themselves hard enough.

That applies to everyone, from second graders trying to learn how to say their r-words properly to resolution makers who are trying to change their lives.

How to write New Year’s resolutions you can meet

Once I share the secret to writing explicit resolutions you are going to think it’s too simple.

I want to reassure you that this method will work if you follow all the steps — and work towards meeting them.

There is power in simplicity.

When it comes to writing your goals, you should have major goals as well as sub-goals.

Think of the major goals as your ‘big picture’ goals.

They state the end result you are looking to achieve.

The sub-goals are those baby steps that are going to get you to the major goals; these will be the daily, weekly, and monthly modifications you will be making that can help you meet your big goals.

How to write goals for New Year’s

Here are the three questions you need to answer that will help you write  S.MA.R.T resolution’s; those are:

• Who
• Will do what
• Under what conditions

1. First, the who is, well, YOU!

Usually, that is; if you are a parent, you may find yourself making resolutions for your children.

You might even have resolutions that you want to achieve as a family, such as spending more quality time together outdoors or traveling instead of spending too much time using electronic devices separately.

Business owners can also make resolutions for their company.

2. Second, will do what?

What are the specific results you want to achieve?

Here is where you want to list goals for saving money goals, weight loss, travel, etc.

3. Finally, under what conditions?

Is there a specific frequency or timeframe you want to achieve the goals in?

Don’t forget to make your time frames realistic so you don’t discourage yourself.

While losing 30 lbs in 30 days might sound nice, rarely is it healthy or sustainable — you want to make goals that push you but are still feasible.

Each goal can often be divided into sub-goals, which further enumerate the steps you need to take to meet your goals.

Here are examples of “major goals” you could write for some of the top New Year’s resolutions:

• I will save $10,000 by the end of 2020.
• I will lose 10 pounds within three months.
• I will read one new non-fiction book every month. 

How to write sub-goals

Now let’s discuss how to write the sub-goals that will help you meet your major goals.

Sub-goals are going to dive into the specific steps that you need to take in order to meet your major goals. Often this means doing some research and/or changing behavior.

Here are some examples of sub-goals for some of the major New Year’s resolutions categories:

• saving money
• losing weight
• reading more books.

How to write a New Year’s resolution to save money:

Long-term goal:

• I will save $10,000 by the end of 2020.

Sub-goals:

• I will identify all monthly expenses using a budgeting tracker or online spreadsheet.
• I will keep our grocery budget under $XXX every month. 
• I will keep a detailed budget (by hand OR by using an app) which I will update daily to track expenses.
• I will put $200 in my savings account each week and will not touch that money AT ALL in 2020. (That number will actually get you slightly above $10,000 to $10,400.)

How to write a New Year’s resolution to lose weight:

Long-term goal:

• I will lose 10 pounds in three months.

Sub-goals:

• I will perform cardio/strength exercise 3 times per week for AT LEAST 30 minutes each time. 
• I will go to sleep before 10 pm every night to stay well-rested.
• I will drink 64 oz of water every day.
• I will eat 3 meals per day with one snack keeping my total calorie intake under ____.

(Notice that I added an additional quantifier of AT LEAST as well as the number AND duration of the exercise.)

Diet and exercise goals can be a little tricky; some people love the Keto Diet and others swear by Weight Watchers.

If you want to make losing weight a goal, you may need to do some exploration of methods that best suit your lifestyle, goals, and preferences.

In general, all methods should address diet and exercise.

How to write a New Year’s resolution to read more books:

Long-term goal:

• I will read one new non-fiction book every month.

Sub-goals:

• I will research books to read via recommendation sites or national Best Seller’s lists to help identify books to read on a weekly basis.
• I will purchase a new book to read and finish reading it within one month.
• I will read for at least 15 minutes each day, instead of looking at my phone or computer.
• I will not start or purchase a new book until I have finished reading the last one.

Final thoughts

I hope that you found this post on how to make New Year’s resolutions and actually meet them helpful!

If you have any questions or feedback on certain goals feel free to leave me a comment in the comment section below.

But wait! Don’t leave without your free printable goal tracker.

That’s right, in order to help you achieve all your goals I created this free New Year’s resolutions printable worksheet that will help you organize your thoughts, put your goals down in writing, and empower you to hold yourself accountable.

You can fit four major S.MA.R.T goals and sub-goals on one sheet, but feel free to print more than one.

However, don’t spread yourself too thin; you may find it beneficial to really narrow your focus and hone in on a few goals that are really important to you!

Click the image below to download and print now!

Now you are on your way to writing some great goals and changing your life for the better!

Don’t think this writing method applies to New Year’s resolutions only!

Any time you want to set a goal for yourself, be it personal, your business, whatever, it helps to write the goal out in measurable terms.

Now get out there and start reaching for the stars!

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