Are you ready for Step 2 in my GENIUS Approach to New Year’s resolutions?
Here’s the truth that most goal setting skips: before you decide what you want, you have to get honest about what you already know.
I’m willing to bet that you have lived through enough “new years” to recognize your own patterns. Certain things in your day-to-day life fuel you and motivate you. Others drain you. Not necessarily because you are “bad at discipline,” but because your life has real inputs and real outputs.
That’s why Step 2 in my GENIUS Approach to making resolutions is Energy.
This step is about paying attention to what energizes you so your next goals feel exciting. It is also about naming what drains you so you stop writing your future like a punishment.
The last thing you want is to set a resolution that looks impressive on paper, then builds a schedule or daily practice that you cannot stand living inside.
When you name what energizes you, you stop setting goals based on fantasy. You start setting goals based on reality, and reality is where sustainability lives.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t challenge yourself or stretch outside your comfort zone (we’ll talk more about that in Step 5 next week), but taking early stock of your motivators is why the GENIUS Approach often outsmarts traditional goal setting strategies.
Instead of leaping from “who you are now” to a “whole new you” with a hard pivot and a ton of pressure, the GENIUS Approach invites a gentler evolution. You keep what works, release what doesn’t, and build forward with the energy you actually need to keep going.
So today for Step 2, we are not asking, “What should I do this year?”
We are asking, “What gives me energy, and what takes it away?”
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Today’s Small Shift
Step 2 in the GENIUS Approach is Energy.
As a mindset, energy is about shifting from “I have to push through, no matter how I feel” to “I choose to focus on what energizes me in the way I need.”
Today’s practice is this:
Perform an energy audit. Create two columns with two headings: Energizers and Drainers. After meetings, meals, activities, hobbies, or time with certain people/in certain places, jot some quick bullet points about what felt uplifting or exhausting about those experiences. Feel free to also get started by drawing on past memories as well.
Then, circle the top three Energizers and write out your response to this question: How can I bring more of this energy into my year?
Next, complete this sentence: The energy I want to bring into my life this year is…
On Monday, I’ll share the theory, mindset, and practice behind Step 3: Novelty.
I hope you continue following along!
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