New Years Resolutions: How to Find A Goal and Elevate It
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Hey Notre Dame, welcome back to campus! Many start their 2026 with resolutions, hoping to bring change to their life. If you haven't yet come up with your resolutions, here are some great ways to start brainstorming! If you already have a goal, keep reading to learn how you can elevate it!
The most important decision to make is to decide what you want to improve on. There's a lot of categories you can choose from; you can have a fitness goal, a school related goal, a time management goal, or something completely different.
If you are not sure what type of goal might be best suited for you, sometimes reflecting on the past year can help bring insight. For example, if you struggled with reading last year, you could set a goal to read one book each month.
If you see yourself spending a lot of money on morning coffee, maybe consider making your morning beverages at home. Not only will you save money, this goal could double as a new hobby.
Once you have reflected on the last year and have a pretty good idea of what you’d like to change, it’s time to elevate the goal! It's important to hold yourself accountable to your resolution, something only about 10% of people actually do while the other 90% abandon their goal early.
How do you elevate a goal? Well, the best way to take it to the next level is to understand why the goal is important to you, find the significance in the goal, and think about how you can hold yourself to it.
Say your goal is to finish all your homework on time for your math class, finding significance for this goal can be easier than you might think. Maybe you want to work in STEM when you are older or you want to improve your math grade or skills. Sometimes when we set a goal, it is really hiding in a bigger goal, maybe even a subconscious one. That is why it is so important to fully understand why you have chosen your goal.
Holding yourself to your goal doesn’t have to be tedious. Say your goal is to run a mile each day, to stay on track with this you could set an alarm for the same time every day or you could make it a habit to run before you eat dinner.
Whether you already made your resolution or have just now come up with one, you have all the tools you need to be successful with it. As the new semester starts, you too, can start something new, or end something old.
