Many people think of the new year as a fresh start – a time to leave behind old habits, make new and healthier habits, and set goals for the year to come. If you don’t know where to start, that’s okay! We’ve created a goal-setting guide to help you start 2023 off on the right foot.
Step 1: Reflect
Look back on 2022 and think about the best parts. What were your favourite memories? What habits did you enjoy? Maybe you got a good grade in a hard class, you discovered a new hobby, or you made a new friend at camp. By reminding ourselves of these highlights, we can carry them into the new year with us.
It is also important to look at what parts of 2022 weren’t the best – perhaps you forgot to study for a test or didn’t sign up for a club at school. We can look at these as areas to improve next year.
Step 2: Think About the Big Picture
Before we can set specific goals, let’s look at the big picture. What makes you excited about next year? One year from now, where do you want to be and what do you want to achieve? This can be anything from wanting to make more friends, staying organized with schoolwork or feeling more confident in school or at camp.
Step 3: Consider the “How”
Now that we know our end goals, let’s come up with how to get there. Think about small habits you can create each day that will help you reach your end goal. If you want to stay organized at school in 2023, try setting a goal to do your homework first every night or to start bigger projects earlier. If you want to make more friends, set a goal to say “Hi!” to one new person each day.
Step 4: Make a Plan
With your goals in mind, we can now come up with an action plan to put them into practice. A good action plan will be specific and timely, which means you will be able to measure how long it will take to achieve it. For example, if you set a goal to improve your language skills, you can use a dictionary to learn one word each day – by the end of one week, you will know 7 new words and at the end of the year, you will know 365 new words!
Step 5: Measure Success
We should also be specific about what success will look like for all our goals – what mark would you like to achieve in all your classes? What new skill would you like to accomplish? It is important to look back on the success of your goals throughout the year to remind yourself of what you have achieved already, and what else you can do to make it happen!
In order to achieve our goals, we first have to set them. Setting goals is an important part of being a leader. For help setting your 2023 goals, you can use our “Ultimate Goal-Setting Guide” printable sheet: