How to Make Your 2025 New Year’s Resolutions Last All Year

Don’t just focus on what you will DO,

focus on who you will BE

“Most of the old moles I know wish they had listened less to their fears and

more to their dreams."

Charlie Mackesy, from his lovely and brilliant, "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse"

Ahh, a New Year.

365 fresh, shiny days ahead. No matter what happened in 2024, the new year is a blank canvas that you can paint any way you want. It’s a unique time, filled with promise and possibility.

It’s also a time of resolutions, when we make promises to ourselves to continue good practices, break bad habits, and set goals to improve our lives.

Here is what a typical list of New Year’s resolutions looked like for me in the past:

• Work out 4+ times/week

• Cook dinner for Tim at least 2 times a week

• Journal daily

• Eat 5+ vegetables every day

• Dedicate x hours of time and energy to volunteering

Was I successful?

Well, um, kind of.…. I’m consistent about my workouts and journaling. However, Tim would starve on Susan’s Nights to Cook if it weren’t for takeout and delivery. And potato chips still count as a vegetable, right?

According to time management company Franklin Covey,

over 30% of us who set resolutions

don’t make it through the end of January.

How about you?

I sat down and went back over my New Year’s resolutions for the past several years and noticed something interesting:

• The years when I focused just on DO-ing, hitting a specific BMI or weight on the scale, organizing my storage room, cooking for Tim- all blurred together or rolled into the next.

• The years in which I decided to focus on how I wanted to Be, and not just what I wanted to Do - I saw significant results in terms of personal growth and accomplishment.

I very clearly remember the year I decided to BE Courageous.

I had a “good “job, with a nice salary, benefits, company car. I didn’t exactly hate it, but sure didn’t love it. I was solidly in the “Fine Zone.” The Sunday Night blues were a disheartening reminder of another upcoming week of "fine." I knew I was meant for more. To make the leap and follow my passion into the field of professional training and coaching, I needed to be brave.

My parents, friends, colleagues all thought I was crazy. Why would I give up a sure thing for a commissioned position with a tiny start up in a field I knew almost nothing about?

It would have been easy to listen to all those well-meaning voices.

But I had resolved to be courageous, remember?

I found myself asking “What would a brave person do in this situation?”

Sure- it meant making some big decisions, but also countless small ones.

Being Brave meant that now I would need to:

• Stretch myself out of my comfort zone and risk making mistakes

• Be the first to apologize after an argument

• Pick up the phone and make the call or send the note

• Give candid, courageous feedback

• Speak up for what I knew was right, and speak out against what I knew was wrong

I look back on that time, so many years ago, and I hardly recognize that shy, hesitant young woman. I want to wrap her in my arms and say “I’m so proud of you. You didn’t spend life on the couch. You got up and danced.”

The Year I focused on BE-ing:

• Creative- I registered for drawing and painting classes and uncovered a hidden talent and passion

• Giving- I volunteered with Big Sisters, and grew a relationship with a lovely ten-year-old girl who, 18 years later, I still love and cherish

• Healthy – I signed up to work out with a personal trainer/nutritionist and made daily choices that have resulted in greater levels of health and energy to carry me through life’s adventures and challenges. That was also the year I entered a fitness competition!

And for 2025?

This year, my word is "Trust." As in, I will Be more Trusting of myself- and listen to that Inner Voice that never steers me wrong.

For me, Trusting myself means I will have to:

• Step up more courageously and consistently

• Be gentle with myself and trust that I'm on the path I'm supposed to be on

• Embrace learning, knowing that there is no such thing as failure if I've learned something

• Trust myself to Do the Right Thing and take the High Road. Always. Even when it's really, really tough.

The thing that is so powerful about BE-ing is that, over the course of a whole year, this BE-ing is like our North Star, our compass that guides our daily habits and decisions to keep us on our path. Eventually, BE-ing becomes who we are- our new Identity.

How do you want to BE in 2025?

What is one small action you can take to BE this way?

I wish you and your family a joyous 2025!

On any day, at any moment, you can Decide.

With so much Love,

Susan

PS- I thought you might enjoy these Words of Wisdom from my favorite poet-

Marian Denny, My Mother ❤️

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