What if you don't want to do resolutions or annual planning?
Published: Fri, 01/09/26
Updated: Fri, 01/09/26
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Checking in Instead of Resolving
If you don’t want to do any annual planning – it’s ok. You don’t have to go by an arbitrary calendar and what “everyone else” is doing. You don’t have
to have a Word of the Year or a plan to fix yourself.
I know I have been overwhelmed by all the "new you" emails. I am enough. So are you.
Some people never make resolutions because they know they won’t follow through. They’ve had the same goals for the past ten years. It can be frustrating and feels like a waste of time.
What’s important in a meaningful life is being off auto-pilot. If you do exactly what you did last year, you’ll
get what you got last year. You will change because it’s automatic, but will you go forward or backward?
Instead of a big annual plan, you can continually check in with yourself and want you want to do, have, be and feel. You may have different desires later in the year than now. You might have transitions or life events to adjust to. But, if you keep connecting with your soul you will be guided to what’s next.
Check In
It’s helpful to have systems in place to
check in. Monthly, weekly and/or daily intentions. Journal and ask yourself questions. Answering a question a week is just as good as answering a whole packet of questions between Christmas and New Year.
You may find you are focusing more on self-care or letting go or playing with a character trait than of the normal “shoulds” of the New Year.
When you connect to yourself regularly, your life is more you. You aren’t charting someone else’s course, you are
using your inner compass.
When you hear answers, you need to put
in place systems for what you want. Put things you want to improve into your calendar and/or routine. Set reminders. Make the environment easier for you (set out exercise clothes, make and exercise schedule for the month, fruit bowl on the table.) Change one habit at a time. If you are decluttering – have a set time and use the declutter calendar.
Remember Your Growth
Write down your gratitudes, accomplishments, and kind things you have done throughout the year in a notebook or in a jar. Most of us forget by the end of the year and start the next year already feeling behind and unsuccessful.
And if you do feel like settings a few goals and systemize a plan to actually do those goals, you aren't
behind! I have my Simple Annual Planning Call January 13th! This is a gentle, non-pressured filled call to do a bit of dreaming, a bit of planning and a bit of playing in community.
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Warmly,
I help the overwhelmed create saner, simpler lives.
I deliver…
Untamed possibility. Breathe easier simplicity. Hope. On the wings of understanding and encouragement. Step by step breaking down from “no way! “ to “why not?”