Are you ready to make 2024 your best year yet? 

If so, you’re in the right place because in this blog post, I will be sharing an effective 7-step approach to new year goals setting so you ACTUALLY achieve your goals in this coming year! I’ll be using health goals as examples, but these steps work great for any type of goal.

Setting New Year Goals: A Personal Journey

Step 1: Reflect on Your Core Beliefs/Identity

This is important because we humans like to stay consistent with who we believe we are. So if we do not take the time to reflect and shift our core beliefs/identity to align with the goals/outcomes we are working to achieve, then we may find ourselves self-sabotaging our effects along the way. Sometimes without even realizing it. 

For example, If you believe you’ll always struggle with your weight or with your health, then you probably will. I truly believe the saying, “if you believe you can or if you believe you can’t, you’re right” so the very first step when it comes to setting our goals for 2024 AND reaching those goals, is reflecting on what we believe to be true for ourselves.

So ask yourself, “Do I actually believe I can reach my goal?”

And I know this can feel tough. Especially if you are someone who has been trying to reach your goals for years now and hasn’t been successful. Every time you “failed” in the past you probably solidified or strengthened that belief or identity around “I will always struggle.”

But it doesn’t always have to be that way. An awesome framework I like to use with my clients is called the B.T.F.A.R framework. It stands for:

• Beliefs
• Thoughts 
• Feelings
• Actions
• Results 

The goal of this framework is to help us identify what core beliefs we may be holding on to. I encourage you to try out this framework and see what shows up for you! 

I’ll share an example to help you understand how to use this framework. 

So let’s say I am holding on to a core belief of, “I will always struggle with my weight.”

If you had that core belief, what types of thoughts may you think?

Maybe, “what’s the point of pushing myself at the gym” or “why bother eating healthy.”

If you had those types of thoughts, what type of feelings may you feel?

You might feel “stuck” or low energy and down. 

If you felt “stuck” or low energy, then what types of actions may you take?

You might numb out or disconnect with food or alcohol or binge-watch Netflix. 

And if you took those kinds of actions, what type of results may you experience?

You may continue to struggle with your weight. 

The goal of this framework is to reverse engineer up to the core belief. In this example, I started with the core belief, but it’s best to take your current result or situation and go up the framework until you discover what core beliefs you may be holding on to. You might not discover your core belief right away and that is okay. It’s important to try again and go into it with an open mind with zero judgment. 

Once you know what you’re working with THEN I recommend you reflect on the goals you’d like to achieve. If after completing the previous framework you find that you don’t believe you can actually reach your goals then I recommend you start small and start to rebuild that trust or integrity with yourself first and then add in bigger goals so you don’t keep reinforcing a belief that doesn’t serve you. This is something I help my clients with, so if you ever need help, let me know! 

Step 2: Brain-Dump Your Goals, Dreams, or Ideas

Next, we want to brain-dump any and all your new year goals, dreams, or ideas. Just throw it all on paper and see what comes up. This step is liberating and crucial for setting new year goals.

Once you have it all down, you can approach it in 2 ways:

See what common theme you notice. For example, do most of your goals, dreams, and aspirations revolve around bettering yourself? Or around advancing in your career at work or feeling more connected to a community? What common theme do you notice? Because that can be the main focus for 2024. I’ll expand on that in a bit.

Based on all that you put down, you can categorize what feels more realistic or aligned for 2024. Meaning, if you look at your list, when you pick X goal, feel into it. Does it actually feel like a “heck yes” or not really? Our body has a way of letting us know what is truly meant for us versus what maybe we think we want based on external factors. And it can take time to really connect with your body to know what your body is actually communicating to you.

Another exercise I like to have my clients do is called the “yes” and “no” exercise. To learn more, watch this video here. But essentially it helps you start to become aware of what a true yes or a true no feels like for you. That can be a helpful exercise in helping you pick goals that are more in alignment versus picking goals we think we “should” work on or our ego wants us to work on, but deep down we don’t actually care.

This is important because this ties to the first step. If you pick a goal that doesn’t align with what you actually want then it could continue to solidify that belief of “I will always struggle” or whatever belief you feel you’re holding on to that is keeping you “stuck.”

For example, if you think you “should” lose 20 lbs or “should” go for that promotion but you don’t actually want those things, then you most likely won’t be successful. And it will reinforce that core belief that isn’t serving you OR you may be successful but you didn’t enjoy it or you feel drained and burnt out. So it’s important to get clear on what you actually want to achieve in 2024. Simple and focused is best! 

Step 3: Narrow Your Focus

Now it’s time to narrow your focus and pick the new year goals you’d like to work on in 2024. This step ensures that your efforts are concentrated and effective, making it easier to achieve your new year goals.

Based on what you discovered in the previous steps, pick your top 3 goals. Sometimes it can be tempting to want to do all things all at once, but I find this saying to be very true, “we overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate [what we can accomplish in 3].” Meaning, if you are someone who has a lot on your plate, maybe you’re a mom of 3 and work full time AND you want to lose 50 lbs. But you also struggle with your relationship to food/your body and are a beginner. Then you most likely will feel overwhelmed reaching your health goals if your list is very long. Instead, I recommend you have 1 main focus and add 2 secondary focuses. 

How this works is picking 1 main goal that we would love to achieve and if we only achieved that, we would be happy! Then the 2 secondary goals are goals we would also love to achieve but would be okay if we didn’t achieve those goals in the timeframe we wrote down. Because eventually, those secondary goals can become your primary goal. This is a great framework because it adds flexibility to our goals, while still focusing on our top 3. 

This will also help us stay focused and consistent without being overwhelmed. We want to think long-term. You are creating lasting change, so no more “quick” fixes, that never work.

Trust me, I am in the fitness industry.

don’t. be. fooled. by. the. quick. fixes.

Because ultimately, the goal is to reach our goals AND enjoy it as much as possible AND sustain our results, or else what’s the point?

What’s the point of working so hard towards a goal if you are going to hate your life, feel overwhelmed, and then not be able to sustain your results long-term?

VERSUS, taking a little longer to create a strong foundation and giving your body the time it needs and then being able to never struggle with that again. This mindset shift helped me so much in my journey. Once I “gave up” I actually reached my goals and I’ve been able to sustain it for 5+ yrs without all the struggle and heaviness I felt. So I am sharing from experience.

Step 4: Reflect on What You Need to Be Successful

This includes identifying the habits that will help you reach your new year goals. Focusing on habits is powerful because those are things within our control.

I personally love focusing on habits because those are things we can control. I understand sometimes life throws curve balls our way, but for the most part, we can control our habits. This is helpful because, let’s say you have a weight loss goal, sometimes we can’t control how our body responds, so we may or may not lose weight that week. If we only focused on that then we could feel like a failure and want to give up. Versus, if at the end of the week our weight didn’t change but we accomplished the habits we set for ourselves, we can feel successful because we controlled the only thing we could control. So as you complete step 4, you want to reflect on the habits that will help you reach your goals. 

Let’s use our previous example of wanting to lose 50 lbs, busy life, and complete beginner. Things that person may need are beginner-friendly workouts, easy-to-follow meals, support or accountability because the beginning can be the most challenging, and guidance or clear steps to follow. I recommend you make your list as specific as possible and break it down even further. I shared a very short list just to give you an idea, but the more specific you get to your situation and what you feel you need to be successful, the easier it will be to reach your goals! 

Then make a list of the habits that align with those goals. For example, a habit could include meal prepping every weekend since the work week is busy, setting out workout clothes the night before, and having breakfast prepped and ready to go post-workout. 

Step 5: Anticipate Potential Barriers

Reflecting on all the potential barriers you may face and how to overcome them is a proactive step in achieving your new year goals.

We want to include everything. Some examples may include irregular work schedules, crazy kids, social events, or travel. Whatever it is, write it down. Because then you want to reflect on ways you can overcome those barriers.

So for example, if one of your potential barriers is frequent travel then you can create a playlist on Youtube with 30-45 min workouts that you can use if you do not have access to a gym during a trip. 

So essentially we are creating a plan A, plan B, plan C, and plan D… because another great saying is, “fail to plan, plan to fail.” But not us in 2024 because we are going to be proactive, which will include reflecting on what potential barriers we may face.

We are almost there, I promise! I understand this might feel long, but we have some awesome goals to accomplish in 2024, which will require more intention and focus.

Step 6: Define What Success Looks Like for You

It’s essential to get clear on what success means to you in the context of your new year goals. This personal definition of success will guide your efforts and help you stay motivated.

We may say losing 50 lbs is a success, but what does that actually look like for you? Because we can lose 50 lbs in many ways. We can starve ourselves, work out 2 times a day, get surgery, etc. What would success look like for you?

Using our previous example of wanting to lose 50 lbs, success could look like, losing 50 lbs by working out 3 days a week consistently, meal prepping every Sunday while I listen to my favorite music or podcast, eating dessert 2x/a week, taking a 15 min walk on my lunch break, and developing a healthy relationship to food and my body.

Do you see how everyone could have a different definition of success? So reflect on what success looks like for you based on your goals for 2024.

Step 7: Clarify Why These Goals Are Important to You

Understanding the ‘why’ behind your new year goals is critical for sustained effort and motivation, especially when challenges arise.

But if we don’t have a strong WHY behind that, it’s easy to fall off and give up when things get hard. So I encourage you to take a moment and reflect on why this is important to you. Another exercise I love walking my clients through is called The Seven Layers Deep. To learn more and download the PDF that walks you through it, click here.

But essentially, what it’s helpful for is getting to the core of why a goal is important. Usually, the first 1-4 reasons are surface-level, but once you continue, you’ll start to discover your true WHY. 

So I recommend you check that out. 

WE DID IT!

We have successfully worked through all the steps and now it’s time to write it all down, getting clear and concise on your path to achieving your new year goals.

Fill out the blanks below to tailor your plan to your new year goals:

Success in my weight loss journey looks like ________________. The habits that will get me to that goal are ____________________________________________. The potential barriers that may impact my success are ___________________________________________. The way I will overcome those barriers is by _____________________________________________.

I am committed to __________________________________ for the next month (or insert your own time frame)!

Once I’ve accomplished (insert previous response),_________________________, I will add on ___________________________________ and commit to that for ________________________________________________________________.

Why it’s important I reach this goal is because ____________________________________________.

It can be helpful to break down your goals into chunks. Meaning, if you want to lose 50 lbs, your first milestone could be losing your first 10 lbs! Then refocus on the next 10 lbs and so on, until you’ve reached your ultimate goal. 

Something else that can be helpful and I love to do is to write down my goals on a Post-It note and stick it on my mirror to see it daily!

Bonus Tips:

Shifting the way you talk about your goals can make it easier to achieve your goals. For example, change “I can’t eat that” with “I am choosing to eat this instead.” So if you’re hanging out with a friend instead of saying “I can’t eat that pizza” I suggest saying something like, “that pizza looks awesome, but I am choosing to eat this veggie bowl with a protein source.” When we say we are choosing something, it’s more empowering. Because you CAN eat whatever you want but you are CHOOSING to work towards your goals. And of course, you CAN eat pizza and lose weight but sometimes the better option is the veggie bowl with protein.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. I’d love to hear your thoughts or your goals! Please share over on my Instagram. Send me a direct message (@odeliasilva_)

If you’d like to work together, click here to learn more!