Jump Into January - 5 Top Tips To Help Achieve Your New Year Goals

With the New Year comes a feeling of purpose and new beginnings - a chance to set new goals and embrace new challenges with gusto!

The New Year can mean different things to all of us - for some of us it's a time for setting goals and a plan on how to achieve them, for others it might be about starting to form healthy habits, and for some, it's about living in the moment and thriving through all the joys and challenges that life throws our way!

Whatever your style, we've put together our 5 top tips for embracing the New Year 🎉

Finding your why is about discovering what drives you - the enduring thing that motivates and inspires you in your day-to-day life. Your why is not your goals, but the reason behind the goals you set - digging deep into the heart of your reason to get out of bed in the morning.

A simple exercise you can do to help find your why is to grab a pen and paper and start by writing down something that you'd like to achieve this year; for example - to try pole dancing! 😉

Then you ask yourself why you want to learn pole dancing, and your answer might be "to work on my health and fitness". Write that down, and then ask yourself why you want to work on your health and fitness.

See where this is going? You'll want to write that one down as well, and keep asking yourself why until you run out of answers. Your ultimate reason for wanting to start pole dancing might actually be so that you can feel more confident and prove to yourself what you're capable of 💕

Be patient with this exercise, and be kind to yourself. Shut down any negative self-talk and let your dreams and goals do the talking - you are capable of so much more than you might think!

When you find your why, write it somewhere that you can see to remind yourself why you're doing something. You could write it on the front cover of your journal, set it as the screen saver on your phone, or even pop it on a post-it on your mirror!

We LOVE big goals, don't get us wrong, but the easiest way to achieve the big goals is by forming small, helpful habits that help to lead us in the right direction.

Setting small, achievable goals is a fun way to see your progress as you work your way towards the big stuff. We're a big fan of SMART goals, which are goals that are:

• Specific
• Measured
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Timed

  
  

So if your why is to feel more confident and prove to yourself what you're capable of, and that you'd like to get there by trying pole dancing, you could start with a SMART goal of booking in for a consult at your local pole studio before the end of January 🙌

Your next goal might be to book and attend your first class. The next, to attend 2 classes per week every week for the next 3 months. Keep adding and re-assessing your goals as you go, always referring back to your why to make sure you're on track for what you ultimately want for yourself this year ✨

Not all victories are big, tangible things. Sometimes it can be as simple as feeling good after going to bed slightly earlier the night before.

Celebrate all the small wins along the way to achieving your big goals - whether that's drinking enough water today or tearing yourself away mid-Netflix binge to go dance 💃 All those teeny-tiny, seemingly insignificant things add up over time and will eventually come together to help you achieve the bigger goals.

Some fun ways to celebrate your small wins are to:

• Write them down on a small piece of paper, put it in a jar and see all your achievements this year slowly fill the jar up
• Have a wee brag about it (you've earned it!)
• Reward yourself with something you love, like taking a long bath or making a cup of your favourite flavour of tea
• Do a little happy dance
  

The biggest barrier to achieving your goals is burnout. As exciting as it is to come up with a plan for the year and have big ambitions, it's just as important to create time and space to look after yourself.

Self-Care is about more than treating yourself to a spa day - it's about looking after your mind and body on a daily basis. Little things like not working through your breaks at work, drinking enough water and stepping outside for a bit of sunshine are all small acts of self-care that you can do every day.

Sometimes self-care is going to the studio and dancing your wee heart out, and sometimes it's planning a rest day to get a massage and enjoy some ice cream! Listen to your body and if you feel like you might be burning out, take some time to rest and recover.

Repeat after me: resting is an essential part of any training plan!

Once you've found your why and planned your SMART goals to help you get there, it's time to have fun with it! Keep looking back to your why to help stay motivated, and adapt your goals as you go to make sure you're having fun every step along the way 🤸‍♀️

Forming good habits isn't always easy, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun! If it helps, enlist a friend with similar goals to be your accountabilla-buddy so that you can encourage each other...and maybe compete just a little bit, to help keep you on track 😉

Whatever you're hoping to achieve this year - we've got your back! Come talk to us about your goals, and dance your way into the New Year Altitude style!