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By nature, organizers care deeply about habit-building. If we didn't, there would be no point to our profession.
Yes, we come into your home and help you make decisions, declutter and put in organization systems. But without helping our clients develop new habits, the work that we do would not be maintainable.
New Year's Resolutions are tricky. The beginning of the year is a wonderful time to take stock of what you currently have, what you want, and work out how to close the gap between the two. This is often followed by several months of sticking to the resolution before becoming busy with other things (our blog post Let's Talk About Last Year's Resolution is a great one to review if this describes you).
We'd like to suggest a way to break away from that pattern.
How? The answer is simple. The reason we break our New Year's Resolutions is because we fail to check in with ourselves and make time for our goals (and subsequently, ourselves).
Sure, we do at the beginning. But life takes over quickly. Someone in the family might become sick, or you might make a big life change like moving or renovating and before long, the resolution is forgotten.
Here is the secret to making your resolution stick. Instead of choosing a broad goal like "I will lose weight" or "I will get organized," make this your resolution:
"I will check in with myself."
I know that sounds weird, but the reality is that we break our resolutions because we put ourselves aside. We choose to focus on someone else, or some other project that takes us away from self-betterment.
Instead, set smaller, mini-goals for yourself. These should be achievable and specific, and they will be ever-changing throughout the year.
The resolution is not to complete all of the goals. The resolution is to check in with yourself on your goals and make sure that you still care about them, and to continue to break them down and take action on them.
Checking in with yourself is more than a resolution - it is a life choice. It is the choice to declare that you matter. As Henry David Thoreau wisely said, "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."
What does "checking in" look like? It could be spending 15 minutes a day with your calendar or to-do list. It might be pouring a cup of tea and planning your week every Sunday. It could be going for a walk and thinking about your goals.
At the end of the day, goal completion is driven by long-term habit building, NOT short-term goal setting. So if you want to accomplish big things in 2019, create space in your life to check in and take accountability for yourself. It is quite possibly the only way to achieve what you truly want.
Happy Organizing!
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