How To Practice 5 "Micro-Shifts" When You're Tackling New Year's Goals

The end of the year can be a hectic time of wrapping up deadlines and traveling for the holidays. It can also be a busy time internally as you review all that you've survived or thrived through over the last 12 months.

Those reflections can naturally bring up emotions and epiphanies about what worked well for you—and what didn't—this past year, encouraging you to set new intentions, dreams, and goals for the New Year.

The New Year truly is a time of fresh energy and possibility, yet often folks have trouble sticking to New Year's resolutions beyond January because the way they envision achieving those goals is by attempting to make big strides very quickly. This can lead to burnout, frustration, self-blame, disappointment, or abandoning a goal altogether.

Usually how we make significant shifts that last in our lives is through slow, steady, gradual change.

Positive change is easier to implement when you approach it through the lens of self-love. We are drawn to loving energy, so changes framed lovingly can make us eager to engage with them. Hold yourself accountable for any regrets or poor choices from this past year in a loving way.

Speak to yourself in your thoughts in an encouraging, gentle manner. Making this simple practice one of your main goals for next year could create a positive transformation in every area of your life!

It's a myth that when we're harsh or overly critical of ourselves, we somehow bring out our best. That can actually keep us stuck in old patterns that no longer serve, while being loving and kind makes us feel more confident and safe creating healthy new patterns.

This may sound contradictory, but discipline and self-nurturing pair nicely. Reaching a goal definitely requires discipline—and that discipline is much easier to sustain if you approach going after your goals in a nurturing way.

It might look like getting yourself comfy clothes to work out in or allowing yourself a lazier evening after days when you work out. It could also look like still allowing yourself to spend money on nurturing experiences, like seeing a movie with a friend or allowing a relative to gift you a plane ticket home to visit, as you tighten your monthly budget significantly in the coming year.

One way people feel motivated to keep going after a goal is by seeing progress, so it's helpful to want to make progress on goals! Yet when you are too focused on making a goal happen quickly, you can end up burning out in the pursuit of the goal…and then backsliding, delaying your accomplishment even more.

Remember that part of setting goals for yourself is wanting to heal and improve your patterns. That is usually done slowly. Try to move too fast, and you may miss out on important yet subtle lessons along the way.

Goals are more enjoyable to reach when broken down into bite-size accomplishments. If you want to significantly increase your customer base, stop and celebrate the single new customer that came in this week. If you want to make more friends, celebrate the comforting small talk you made with a co-worker today.

When you are mindful of what's positive and going well, it gives your brain something positive to focus on. That helps you create a healing new neural pathway around a goal, which can encourage you to take positive action steps to reinforce that pathway while also feeling more natural and confident as you do.

While you must put in the effort and take actionable steps toward your goals, it unleashes a bit of magical assistance from the universe when you do!

By beginning to micro-shift a goal, you start changing and moving the energy around you. In time, life will often respond in remarkable ways, bringing helpful people, opportunities, and resources onto your radar.

In circumstances where you have a lot of freedom, this can be dramatic. In circumstances where you're experiencing more lack, limitation, and restriction, this mystical energy law will still hold true and move a goal forward for you, either slightly and just enough to make a difference…or in absolutely wondrous ways.

Knowing the universe will be supporting you however it can within your current circumstances, best interests, and available options can make goals feel less intimidating.