Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year? Did you, like me, abandon it shortly after you made it? Each year brings with it new goals to achieve, opportunities to take advantage of and bad habits to leave behind. Typically we lose focus on our resolutions as the weeks and months go by. We are busy, pre-occupied, or tempted by the bad habits of the past or the molten chocolate cake of the present. Okay, I’ll admit that last one might be a bit personal. We get discouraged and decide to put our resolutions on the back burner until that ambiguous “next time.”
As my grandmother says, there is no time like the present. And there certainly is no better time to set new goals than the beginning of a new school year. Like a new calendar year, a new school year is a turning of the page, the beginning of a new chapter. Each new chapter is a chance for self-improvement, a chance to become the person you have always wanted to be. These are some tricks you can use to make them stick better than the laundry list of goals you set in January.
Start by visualizing your goals. Scholars, athletes and a wealth of others believe in the power of visualizing goals to make them happen. Create a mental picture of you achieving your goals, imagining the excitement and satisfaction you will feel when you reach this goal. As you get discouraged throughout the year, you can recall this picture and bring back those feelings.
Maybe you want to pull up your GPA and need to have the best semester of your academic career, so you visualize yourself studying, feeling confident that you will ace the final exam. Visualize all, as on your transcript and imagine the satisfaction you feel and the excitement of your parents. When you are faced with a decision to go on a weekend-long rager leaving you with days-long hangovers or stay in and taking it easy to study for an upcoming exam, recall that visualization to help you stick to your goals.
Just because you are making goals at the beginning of a school year does not mean they are limited to academia. Maybe you have made stellar grades but realize that your social life is lacking. Visual yourself making new friends and new memories with them and when you feel nervous about putting yourself in a new situation or introducing yourself to someone, you can recall those happy feelings you visualized. Perhaps you are a senior and visualize yourself being hired for a job in a city you have never been to before. Maybe you have always wanted to try something new like running, photography, or heck, even knitting if that tickles your fancy. Your goals can be as simple or as lofty as you desire.
Make the most of the school year, create goals, visualize them and work hard towards them. With any luck you will not only keep your resolutions but you will feel much more satisfied and accomplished when this semester comes to a close.
