How to start the New Year Strong…

Here we are, it’s the second week of January, you’re likely back at practices, back at school, and back to the “normal” that comes every January.

Hopefully you are feeling refreshed, and HOPEFULLY you were able to take a little time off over the holidays. That time off is so needed for athletes to recover physically, and mentally, and also to help prepare for the New Year ahead.

A lot of the time, when you have the “fresh start” that comes with the New Year, you’re eager to dive into those goals. You want to make things happen, right away.

But instead of starting there, I want you to take a look back. 

Look at all the things you accomplished in 2022.

Look at the goals you had set for 2022, or for your current season.

Where are you at with those goals?

Do they need a refresh? 

Are you hitting your milestones, or do you need to adjust?

And remember, it’s ok to adjust. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Setting goals is a way to guide you, to give you something to work towards, but adjusting as you go is just part of the process, and there’s no better time to do that than the New Year and mid-season.

It’s also a great time to set some positive intentions, and get the year started STRONG. So I’m sharing the 4 part series below, on how you can do just that.

Number 1:

Start with self reflection.

✍️ Think abt or review your reflections from the year. What were your biggest successes/accomplishments/wins? Take a moment to praise yourself for those (self-talk matters!) and then take note on how you can repeat those.

✍️ What were your biggest failures/mistakes/losses? What did you learn from them, how have you grown, and how will you apply these things moving forward? Remove the emotion and look at these from the perspective of growing. We need to fail to get better!

Having a growth mindset is key. In AND out of sport. Repeating things you were successful at is important, 💯 But learning to identify, (honestly and without judgment), where you went wrong and how to fix that moving forward is a MUST.

Number 2:

Review your relationships.

Sport (life) gets hard sometimes. Having a strong support system in place is imperative to maintaining confidence, motivation, and drive.

Although you can do this anytime, the start of the year is a good time to evaluate the ppl in your life and what they’re bringing to the table, so to speak.

Simply put — keep those around who are supportive, who challenge you to be the best version of yourself, who are there for you when times get hard, and who understand the sacrifice and commitment involved in whatever you’re doing.

Let go of those who don’t do those things. A good barometer — how do you feel when you leave them?

Positive, energized, happy, enriched? Keep.

Drained, depressed, sad, down? Delete.

Somewhere in between? Edit. (Have a chat and tell them how you feel! Chances are there are areas where both parties can improve).

Number 3:

Gratitude.

I am a HUGE fan of doing this on a daily basis. If you don’t already have a daily gratitude practice, the end of the year is a great time to begin this journey.

Gratitude is a simple way to access appreciation in your life. Practicing it daily helps to build the muscles of optimism, positivity, and always seeing the glass as “half full” - helping you to find that silver lining in all situations, faster. Gratitude increases well being, happiness, energy, and empathy as well.

So before you dive into setting goals or intentions for the new year, it’s important to take some time to reflect on all the things that happened over the past year that you are grateful for. And really allow yourself to feel it.

Think it. 

Write it.

Speak it.

Number 4:

Plan for the year ahead.

Now that we have taken the time to truly squeeze every last drop of goodness out of 2022, it’s time to start thinking ahead and set our goals or intentions for 2023.

Pull out your list from Part 1 earlier this week and review your success and failures. Jot down a quick plan on how to implement these items throughout the year – how you will repeat the things you want to repeat, and how you will implement what you’ve learned in your areas of growth.

Next, think about the things you want to accomplish this year. Once you have identified your intentions for the year, you must come up with a [SMART] plan of action to actually achieve these items. A goal without a plan is just a wish. If you don’t put any action behind it, nothing will happen. The entire first chapter of my book is dedicated to this!

I do a lot of goal setting work with my athletes for this very reason. Setting the goal isn’t the hard part. The hard part comes after that. And sadly, a lot of people don’t know how to do much past setting the actual goal and when it doesn’t happen for them, they get discouraged and never do it again (this is why resolutions don’t work – it’s easy to make a resolution, not so easy to follow through because there is usually no plan put in place to actually carry it out (Forbes).

When writing down your goals/intentions for 2023, keep these things in mind:

👉🏻Identify what specifically you’d like to achieve

👉🏻Develop a baseline for your starting point

👉🏻Identify a realistic timeline to follow

👉🏻Work backwards by creating smaller steps that will enable you to track you progress (and establish how you will track it)

👉🏻Celebrate small successes along the way

👉🏻Consistently evaluate achievements and make adjustments when necessary

👉🏻Have that support system we talked about in Part 2 in place for when things get tough, bc they WILL get tough

👉🏻Come up with a mantra or word as a theme for the year ahead, that will remind you of your intentions for the year and keep you motivated to keep going

Like I said earlier, my book is full of good exercises and stories about goal setting and I’d love for you to check it out. You can find it on Amazon right here: The Empowered Athlete

And finally, we've got our most recent contest happening over in the Facebook group (as of the timing of this writing), so head over there to learn more about how you can take part!