Guide to Nourishing Goals.

It's the New Year, and that means a lot of pressure to shed your old skin and move into the new, improved you. The transition serves as a good wake-up call to make a change you have been wanting to make for the past 365 days. But this also puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on a specific time of year.

I was sitting around the dinner table during Christmas with my family, and we were talking about goals. About how important it is to have goals, no matter how small or large, to keep you thinking about your life. Always improving and growing. The question got brought up about New Year's resolutions and whether or not they are truly sustainable. The answer we decided on was yes; however, it depends on how you approach these goals and resolutions throughout the year that matters.

I believe that using the New Year as a gateway to creating plans is important, but let's take all the emphasis off doing it only at the end of the year. Let's focus on creating and implementing goals throughout life, not just attached to the calendar. So how can you do this?

Looking Inward

The most important ingredient to goal-making is being sure they serve you, your values, your wants, and your dreams. Other human beings will be involved by association, but your goals should resonate with you. How do you look inward and find what you truly desire?

1. Meditation! This beautiful practice can feel like a big commitment, but it can be simple and quite calming. It allows you to look inward and read your mind and your body. You can look up guided meditations; there are tons online, and the app Insight Timer is amazing! Or you can start a timer on your phone, get comfortable, and sit listening to your breath. When your mind is still, that is where you can focus and read whether areas of your life are serving your well-being or not. After meditating, write things down!

2. Journal! I know it's kind of obvious, but it's an amazing, simple, and handy tool to keep in your back pocket. Take out a piece of paper, a notebook, or even your notes app if you want, and sit. Focus on looking at the past, present, and future. Think of things that haven't served you in the past, write those down, and let them go. Now move to what has served you in the past, what is going well in the present, and what you would like to carry toward the future. Write those down. What you wrote down is a goal; keep up on these things that serve me. Now you can read through everything you wrote and think about what might be missing. Are there any areas you could improve or add? Write these down, no matter how small. It could be that I want to brush my teeth more. Great! Thats a goal, and everyone around you will appreciate it too.

3. Mind-Body Connection! Oftentimes, your body will have a physical response to thoughts, ideas, plans, etc. that your mind has. Practice thinking about something, maybe it's a job you are doing. Close your eyes, and envision everything about this job, see yourself working it in the past, present, and future. Then sit and feel your body. Maybe you feel nauseous, maybe you smile, maybe you literally start crying. Whatever it is, your body is telling you what to do. If thinking about this job is making you nauseous, that may be a good sign to move on. Use this to make goals that actually resonate with your whole being, rather than just your mind thinking you should do something.

Making Goals

After really figuring out more about what you want, need, and aspire to be, you can actually make the goals. Writing these down helps infuse them into your life and keep them as tangible acts.

1. Use Kind Language! Goals are not meant to be demanding and harsh; they are meant to be nurturing and inviting. Don't make them too rigid by using words like "must" or "have"; use the phrases "I want to" or "I would like to." This allows you to see it as an invitation to begin rather than make them feel more like a chore.

2. Make Goals Doable! Having large ambitions is amazing, but they can also be overwhelming. Instead of having a bunch of huge goals, try having smaller, more reachable goals. You can even break the larger ones up, like in my earlier example. Instead of wanting to improve hygiene, which is a large goal, you can start more specifically with I want to brush my teeth every day. Small but mighty is the goal!

3. Be Flexible! Sometimes being rigid with a goal can be helpful, but it can also get overwhelming and feel like a stressor on your schedule. Instead of boxing yourself in, leave room for flexibility. Maybe you want to try meditating every day. Instead of trying to meditate daily at 6 in the morning. You try implementing meditation only where it fits in your day-to-day schedule.

4. Find Your Why! Each goal should be connected to a why. Why does this specific goal matter to you? Having this why helps you pick it back up if the goal slips through the cracks of your busy life.

5. Check in With Yourself! Remember what I said earlier about the mind-body connection. Use that throughout writing down or creating any goals. You will feel an intuitive feeling if a goal isn't sitting well. Don't judge it or yourself, just let that goal go.

Keeping Up.

This is the hardest part. You've looked inward, written down some goals, now what? Now you slowly implement them, and you try them out. Try out one or two goals, create a check-in point for yourself each month, every full moon, or whenever it feels right. Sit with your goals, meditate, journal, and do some mind-body connection. Think, does this still align?

If the answer is yes, keep going! If the answer is no, don't judge yourself, just pivot. Shift the goal, drop it completely, or keep it on the back burner.

My step-sister has a list of goals that she keeps, and each month she reviews them. She shifts them, adds goals, gets rid of them. This constant change and adaptation is how goals should be.

As you keep working on goals, you slowly see yourself changing; you get rid of ones that feel completed, or ones that no longer serve your life. That is normal. Just keep revisiting, treating yourself with kindness, and moving forward.

Growth ALL Year

Now, I know I am writing this during the New Year, but I do believe that resolutions should be made year-round, continuously, not once a year. Nobody is perfect, so using the change in year is a helpful transition time to implement and start a plan.

Life is ever-changing, so our goals evolve with our lives. I invite your New Year's Resolution for 2026 and beyond to be looking at goals year-round. Starting slow and getting more and more comfortable with looking inward and finding what you truly want.

Happy 2026, let's make this year and beyond the best yet.