Make This Year Your Best Year Ever

What does the new year mean to you?

To many people, the new year means a fresh start—an opportunity to form new habits, explore something new, or completely start over. Maybe you pledge to get healthier, go on an adventure, learn a new skill, save money, or lose weight. The problem is that many people do not follow through on their New Year’s resolution.

We have the best of intentions, but often end up going right back to our old habits of behavior, which impacts our results and makes us feel terrible about our lack of progress. We experience emotions such as disappointment, frustration, and guilt. This makes us incoherent and depletes our energy, which keeps us stuck or leads us to give up on our New Year’s resolution all together.

This is why 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February.

So, how can you set yourself up for success? Here are three simple science-based tips to help you be even more successful.

1. Get clear on what you want and why.

What do you desire more than anything else? What is your purpose for wanting to achieve this result? Creating a compelling vision will help you stay motivated, even when times get tough.

When you focus on a deeply meaningful intention—something about which you are intensely clear and think about every single day—your powerful subconscious mind will help you achieve it. There’s a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS), and it determines what you notice in the world. When you set a clear and meaningful intention, this part of your brain becomes incredibly acute at noticing anything in your life that could help you to achieve it. A good example of this is if you’ve ever wanted to buy a particular kind of car, and then you start seeing that car everywhere! Your RAS helped you to see those cars because you gave your brain a specific instruction to look for them.

The key is to specify what you want and tune in to how it makes you feel. Take a few moments every morning to envision your desired future and make a decision to do whatever it takes to make it a reality. The ideas and opportunities that will pop up may just surprise you.

2. Set micro-goals. Make your vision part of everyday life.

New Year’s resolutions may only come once a year, but how you follow through on them every day makes all the difference. Many people get overwhelmed by bigger goals, which can lead to confusion, frustration and resistance to change.

To make your vision more attainable, streamline your goal-setting process by focusing your energy on realistic micro-goals that are manageable and achievable. Take the time to write down your goals and break them down into bite-sized steps. It’s okay to not know every part of the journey from the start—you just have to know the next right steps. As you stay focused on what you want, your RAS will guide you towards the thoughts and opportunities that will get you closer.

Remember to set a reasonable timeline for your goals, measure your progress along the way, and CELEBRATE your effort along every step of the journey.

3. Focus on what you want.

The key to your success is to operate from a mindset of absolute belief and faith that you can achieve your vision. Stay focused on what you want, rather than placing your attention on what is not working or potential setbacks.

To help you do that, specify a WORD of the year. Choose a single word that encapsulates what you need more of, what you want to focus on, or what you need to improve on. When you choose a word to guide you through the year, it becomes your anchor and primes your mind to take actions that align with that intention. For example, my word for 2023 is “freedom” because it helps me stay focused on something that is meaningful to me—freeing people from painful negative mental and emotional patterns.

What is the word that best represents what you want this year?

Post this your word somewhere that you’ll see every day to help you stay focused on what you want. For example, I set a reminder on my phone that flashes my word twice a day.