Using Yang Energy for Your New Year’s Resolution Action Plan (2024)

When you set a New Year’s resolution, it’s important to include both emotional and logical paths to success. You might call this feminine and masculine or yin and yang.

Specifically for your burning goals for 2024, I’m referring to both New Year’s resolution affirmations (for your emotions) and a New Year’s Action plan (for structure and logic).

If you take the time to not only tap into your emotions and spiritual side but also your yang energy, you’re more likely to succeed! Here, you will find a detailed, step-by-step plan for executing your New Year’s resolution in a comprehensive manner designed to accommodate the ups and downs of life.

Are New Year’s Resolutions effective?

US News says that around 80% of people have abandoned their New Year’s Resolution by the second week in February. (Forbes has some different statistics.) Yet it seems that only around 8% of people who set New Year’s Resolutions actually meet their goal!

This tells us that New Year’s Resolutions are not very effective. 92% of people setting New Year’s resolutions are failing!

Now, I use the term “fail” loosely… they don’t succeed in meet their goal, but it doesn’t mean that they’ve failed.

So if all of these people are setting New Year Resolutions, why don’t New Year’s resolutions work?

I believe there are three reasons why New Year’s resolutions fail:

1.) lack of specificity
2.) lack of planning
3.) failure to tap into emotions (that’s what affirmations are for!)

Sure, we plan! We say, “I’m going to go to the gym 4 times a week for 45 minutes and cut back on calories by 15%! I should more than achieve my goal… probably by March!

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Then suddenly, our boss is demanding more at work, or the baby gets sick, or anything else in life gets in the way. And we only hit the gym 3 times… then maybe skip a week altogether… then maybe after another half-hearted attempt to get back on track, we realize that we’ve stretched ourselves too thin and give up entirely, promising ourselves that when we have more time, we’ll start up again. (This is something that has happened to me probably millions of times in my life!)

I have news for you (you may have figured this out already):

There is never going to be more time.

We have a very limited amount of time that we are given, and we must fill those hours first with things we are expected to do, then we can add in things we want to do.

This is the way life works. Crazy, unexpected, time-consuming things are going to pop up and we’re going to be blown off-course with our goals!

If we want our New Year’s Resolutions to be effective, we need to kick-ass action plan our goals effectively!

When we develop your New Year Resolution action plan, we want to include a Leveled-Up Ideal Plan, and a Plan B, AND an Emergency Plan. I’m going to even go so far as including a calendar and consolation goals.

I want you to:

1. Set yourself up for success.
2. Minimize the chance of guilt.
3. Be flexible.
4. Put in the time upfront so you’re more likely to follow through.
5. Eliminate the need for will-power!

Let’s get going!

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Getting Started

Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to get your weight to 150 because you want to fit enough to run with your kids. Great! You’ve set affirmations and have a plan of staying mentally focused on those affirmations and goal.

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Your ideal is the plan that you will execute under the absolute best circumstances! So you figure in order to lose some weight, you need to exercise more and watch what you eat. Maybe your New Year Resolution action plan looks like this:

1.) Go to the gym 4 times a week for 45 minutes each time.
2.) Only have dessert twice a week after meals.
3.) Make home-cooked dinners 5 times a week. (Only eat out once every two weeks)

Those are great goals, but they’re not fully fleshed out. Let’s get them LEVELED-UP! Do some research and get really specific about each item in your checklist and put in details to make them SMART goals!

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✅ Enhance Your Plan

1.) Go to the gym 4 times a week for 45 minutes each time.

I will go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday when the hubby is home with the kiddos after school. (Check with hubby and make sure this fits in his schedule. EVERYONE has to be on board with your plan or it won’t work.)

On Monday and Friday, I will jog/walk for 20 minutes (alternating every 2-3 minutes at first, then longer stretches of jogging). Then I will focus on legs and core with the weight machines there for the remaining 25 minutes.

On Wednesday and Saturday, I will jog/walk for 20 minutes (alternating every 2-3 minutes at first, then longer stretches of jogging). Then I will focus on stretching and upper body on the weight machines for 25 minutes.

The last thing that you want is to walk into the gym on January 1st and go… “Um, what should I do now?” You’ve got a plan—now get to work!

It’s TOTALLY okay to change or make alterations to your plan if you find something that works better. Be flexible, and be willing to write down your changes as they happen.

2.) Only have dessert twice a week after meals.

Ask yourself—what qualifies as a dessert? To me, a granola bar is sweet enough to be a dessert. What about a yogurt with toppings?

Now what about replacement desserts? To me, 2 pieces of Dove chocolate does NOT qualify as a dessert!

Which meals do you think you’ll need desserts after? Maybe you have meetings all day on Wednesdays, or those Thursday classes really kick your teacher-butt. Plan a dessert on those days to give yourself a little something to look forward to!

The most important thing is to ask yourself questions and be specific.

3.) Make home-cooked dinners 5 times a week. (Only eat out once every two weeks)

When are you going to plan for meals?

When are you going to go grocery shopping?

______

Do you see how specific this is?

This can be applied to any goal you want.

Now that you’ve leveled-up your Ideal Plan, don’t forget to write it out, print it, and post it somewhere you can see every day!

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✅ Plan for The Craziness of Life!

The Emergency Plan is the final part of your New Year’s Resolution Plan, and it should happen when something derails your entire week.

You don’t have ANY time to do the things you said you were going to do in your ideal plan… What kinds of things can you do to help you toward your goal?

Here are some examples:

1.) I will walk 15 minutes at lunch when I can.
2.) When eating out, we will go to the following restaurants and focus on veggies and meats, but will avoid THESE restaurants and these foods.
3.) When eating dessert, I will opt for smaller, richer portions than larger portions.
4.) I will not let free food derail my plans.

Ask yourself as many questions about these as you did above.

Are you still going to be working toward your goal? Absolutely! It just might take a little longer and that’s okay!

Little Things Add Up

These are LITTLE ways that you can still feel good about working toward your goal even when you’re just trying to survive. Because believe me: little things done consistently can add up to HUGE things!

Again, if these are already built into your plan, there’s less guilt. Instead of:

“Well, this week’s already a bust… might as well have one of those donuts that my coworker brought in,”

you can tell yourself,

“Even though this is a tough week, I still have all of these options for small successes so this week isn’t totally wasted!”

3 Plans

The reason for being so specific is:

1. If you are not succeeding, you get a chance to try again.
2. Success is built into your action plan! If you are not able to achieve your Ideal Plan, chances are you will feel a lot less guilty for taking smaller steps.
3. Shit happens. Life is full of ups and downs and there may be a week in there when you don’t accomplish ANY of your plans. This tiered approach gives you a chance to reconvene and get back into it.
4. The more you plan, the more time you have already put into your goal… I don’t know about you, but if I’ve already spent THAT much time on something, I’m less likely to abandon it. I don’t want all that work to have been for nothing!

There are going to be times when you are not able to meet these daily or weekly goals. You have to be willing to say “That’s okay” and move forward.

Remember: when you’re tired, learn to take a break, not quit.

Check out these 20 Decks of Affirmation Cards to help you stay motivated!

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A few final thoughts on your New Year’s Resolution action plan:

1. The more you write down, the more this will become permanent.

Keep a journal. Message your friends about how it’s going. Make to-do lists. Write down EVERYTHING.

2. Get other people on board with your goals.

If your children know that you’re trying to get fit, explain why. Include them in your work outs. If your partner knows that you’re trying to build a platform for a start-up business, he or she will hopefully be more understanding of your diminished free-time. There’s a chance that a friend or coworker might be trying to accomplish the same thing you are doing. If that’s the case, you can work on your goals together!

3. Don’t forget your affirmations to constantly remind yourself of this priority for you.

If you need to, change the way you are doing your affirmations. Maybe you begin a meditation practice, use mandala beads! If you start journalling, include your affirmations there!

4. Your New Year’s Resolutions Can Be Effective

Don’t worry about why New Year Resolutions fail. Keep your sights on your goals and be flexible to make them work for your life at any given moment.

Get some more ideas on How to Follow Through with Your New Year’s Resolution.

New Year Resolution Planner Free Printable

Take your New Year Resolution to the next level and download the New Year Resolution planner. It’s totally free! No email required!

Using Affirmations for Your New Year’s Resolutions

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This New Year’s Resolution action plan helps to set you up for success.

Any measure of success, no matter how small, is important to celebrate. I mean, don’t go celebrate your weight loss with a huge meal, 3 beers, and a piece of chocolate cake, but maybe get the grandparents to watch the kids and go see a movie with your hubby! You know what I mean.

Experts say that building habits takes 21 days… personally for me, it takes MUCH longer. Those first few weeks of changing your routine and your thought cycle is going to be GRUELING! But it WILL get easier as you go along.

This New Year’s Resolution Action plan is all about balance, executing a well-developed plan, and setting yourself up for success.

What’s your New Year Resolution for 2024?!

How are you helping to set yourself up for success?!

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