5 Tips to Enhance 2025 and Prevent Resolution Burnout

Happy New Year!

Here's a KISS for you. 

You may be thinking about some resolutions or your 2025 goals. Here are 5 Simple things to enhance your new year and meet your goals without burnout.

Keep It Simple Sweetie 

PAUSE FOR GRATITUDE

Whenever you're feeling overwhelmed on disconnected, make a quick mental list of 5-10 things, circumstances, or people you can be grateful for ; especially if they pertain to your stress or overwhelm. Send up a sincere prayer of thanksgiving, then choose 1 item on the list and send a text on email thanking the person responsible. If its you, write one to yourself!  If it's some less tangible source or just a circumstance, honor it with a small kind deed or gesture toward someone else. Getting a word of encouragement, a smile, or a helping hand will be valuable to others, AND can radically reset your own day.

GET RID OF THE CHAFF 

We all accumulate habits, activities, or relationships that are unhealthy, don't serve us or suck our time energy. Choose one thing to eliminate or say no to this year. Replace it with a more productive activity or scheduled self-care time, like a walk, reading, or meditation.

DO A CALENDAR RESET 

Does your schedule control you, or serve you? Your calendar structure should bring peace, not stress. Take some time to examine how you schedule and manage your time. Block scheduling has done wonders for my overwhelm. Rather than hard scheduling particular tasks, I can allocate chunks of time to a range of related activities for efficiency AND flexibility. If you tend to hyper focus, make sure to block in daily self-care, meal time, and even sleep. When unexpected things come up, you can resist the urge to upend your schedule and avoid unneeded stress by seeing clearly where in the blocks the new task should fit, OR you can  choose to simply swap the current block with the block that’s appropriate for the new task. Knowing you haven't blown up your schedule or “crammed in" something extra will remove the stress from the "Urgent" task and allow better focus. Make sure to also create buffer zones in your calendar. These small blocks of time allow for time between appointments for travel delays, or other incidental occurrences that could set you behind or make you feel rushed.

HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

We tend to start off the year with very lofty goals, often piling on more than we can realistically accomplish - and to some extent this may not be a bad thing. We should have big dreams and stretch ourselves. But only when we know how to appropriately scale back or re-evaluate without the sense that we somehow failed.  It may be helpful for you to determine  1) Why the goal is important, and  2) What will happen and how will you respond if you don't obtain it. After making your goals or task lists (I do this with my daily task lists, as well), prioritize them. What are the things that are most important to me? What are the things that we'll have the most positive impact? What are the things that will wreak the most havoc if not accomplished? 

GET HELP

You can't do it all. Identify those things in your life that have moderate to high priority, but take valuable time away from your most productive or fulfilling activities. If hiring someone to manage your emails, scheduling, or follow up could free up time to allow you to be fully engaged in regular relationship building with family and friends, or clients, wouldn't that be an equitable trade? Asking partners or household members to take responsibly of needed "chores” like laundry, meal planning, or yard care could free up a considerable chunk of time for an extra sales appointment or productivity time block, allow you to get consistent with those work outs, or get more involved in your community. 

I hope these tips help you set the tone for your most healthy, productive, and fulfilling year yet! Now, go rock 2025!