New Year’s Resolutions & ADHD: Try a New Year’s Theme Instead

It’s almost 2021… finally! While many people are creating a list of New Year’s resolutions, why not try something different this year? Only 8% of people make it through the whole year with their resolution, and a whopping 80% fail by February.

Keeping elaborate or challenging New Year’s Resolutions can be even harder with ADHD symptoms getting in the way. There’s good news though: instead of setting a massive challenge for yourself, try a New Year’s theme instead.

The Problem with Resolutions

As evidenced by the 80% failure rate, New Year’s resolutions seldom work, whether ADHD is in the picture or not. When “larger than life” goals are set, it’s easy to get swept up in the novelty of it during the moment, but too big resolutions can become too much to keep. Larger-than-life resolutions can be tricky to keep if they get boring, if your schedule changes interrupt the routine, or forgetfulness and inattention creep back in.

Try a New Year’s Theme Instead

While New Year’s resolutions come with the notion that there’s a rubric to measure yourself by, and if you don’t check the box, you fail. For example, if you set the lofty goal to run a marathon in 2021 and run 30 miles each week, you might feel hard on yourself if you don’t reach your goal.

So what is a theme? A theme is like a mantra for the year. Instead of setting rubrics and checklists, a mantra guides you throughout the year. Using a mantra for 2021 eliminates the daily pressure of measuring up to your checklist, and instead creates a more holistic view on self-awareness.

Choosing Your New Year’s Theme

Your mantra for the New Year can be a word, a phrase, or a simple statement like “I want to be more _____________ this year.” By reflecting on your theme, it can influence your day-to-day decisions. Each day-to-day decision you make can help propel you closer and closer to your goal.

To use the running example, your theme could be “I want to be more active this year.” While this doesn’t put so much pressure on your daily life, you can see how this could influence your choices. You might decide to run more often or join a running club, but you won’t feel like a failure if you don’t make X number of miles each week.

Here is another example: let’s imagine that your theme for 2021 is “I want to spend more time with my family.” You can then make decisions based on this theme. You might ask yourself:

• What can I do each day to make more time for my partner or children? (Maybe you build a new evening routine or maybe you wake up 30 minutes earlier.)

A theme isn’t about setting one goal. It’s about adding more to your life. You can still set mini-goals throughout the year to help you continue the theme.

How to Choose a Theme for the New Year

Are you ready to choose a theme for 2021?

• A Year of Gratitude: Focus on adopting an attitude of gratitude throughout the year.
• A Year of Self-Care: Focus on staying active, eating healthy, and getting enough sleep. Self-care is a large umbrella, and choosing this theme enables you to create healthy habits that benefit you and in the long-run (rather than setting one specific exercise or weight loss goal). You can start with this free course on self-care: A Happier You Starts with Self-Care
• I Can Tame Stress: Learn to incorporate stress management techniques throughout your day. Support your mental well-being through healthy outlets for stress.
• Time with Family: If your theme is time, you can work on ways to prioritize time with loves ones, build stronger relationships, and strengthening time management skills.
• “I Give Myself Permission to Be Okay Where I Am. I Am Doing My Best.” Learning to be in the moment isn’t always easy, but with this mantra, you can learn to focus on progress over perfection.
• A Year of Organization. Being organized more than just a clutter-free desk; it’s about the mindset and systems that you organize your thoughts.

These are just ideas. Remember, a mantra can be a single word or a phrase or an idea. Your theme can grow and develop over the year.

Putting Your Plan into Action

Once you’ve chosen your mantra for the year, create a plan to put it in place. Coaching may be a particularly beneficial way to help you do this.

If ADHD, or any of its co-occurring conditions, interferes with your plans for the year, know that working with a professional and finding a multidisciplinary treatment plan that works for you is an important step in managing symptoms and living the life you want.

Need More Guidance?

Whether you need help managing ADHD or need guidance putting your New Year’s theme into practice, we can help. Here at Next Step 4 ADHD, we provide comprehensive, multimodal support, including:

• Medication management
• Therapy
• ADHD coaching
• Online courses, including our Planning & Organizing Group Coaching Program which focuses on nutrition

To make an appointment or to learn more, call us at 502-907-5908. You can also request an appointment here.