New Year practices you can turn to all year long
While people like to dog on the performative and near-futile nature of New Year’s resolutions, I personally love having the excuse to reinvent myself as everyone attempts to. The simple but often overlooked truth is, New Year’s resolutions can come true, as long as they’re truly within your will. Most conversations on setting these goals overcomplicate things by preaching maximized discipline and consistency.
And as necessary and desired these values are, sometimes, all you need is intuition and the ability to believe in yourself.
Below is a list of four systems, methods, and practices I’ve found both potential and success in as I plan for the new year. Though I will say that the mindset shifts you can get from these will be useful and applicable, even as you set goals past January.
1. Law of Assumption
We often hear that assuming makes an ass of us, but what if someone told you that your dream life could just be a couple of assumptions away? That’s the key principle of Neville Goddard’s Law of Assumption: What you assume to be true is the truth. Oversimplified, this law tells you that delulu is the solulu, but as funny as that sounds, that statement holds accuracy.
To get closer to your desired self, you need to tell yourself that you already are what you desire. Doing so subconsciously changes the way you behave and think about yourself and your circumstances.
Take, for example, your goal for the year is to get richer. Acting as if you’re already in possession of the wealth you want will signal your mind to pivot to thoughts and actions that help you build your riches. Telling yourself that you have a lot of money—as delusional as it sounds—would enable you to search for wealth-building opportunities, save more aggressively, and reach the financial freedom you want.
What’s particularly great about the Law of Assumption is its reminder that you are in control of your life. You are responsible for the successes in your life, but also the failures, if you cloud your mind with negative beliefs and self-talk. The Law of Assumption calls people who want to become their desired selves to take accountability—not just in their actions, but in their thoughts as well.
2. Scripting method
An offshoot of the Law of Assumption, the scripting method is a powerful visualization and manifestation tool that quite literally allows you to write the story of your dream life. Get a notebook or a Google Docs file, and write down everything you want to happen in the past or present tense.
At the start of the year, I drafted a 1,500-word document outlining what my life by the end of this year should look like. I wrote in the past tense to tell myself that these things will have happened by December 2026. And a week into 2026, two of the things I’ve written down already came into fruition. Scripting paves the way for a good mix of magic and intention: elements that get you where you want and need to be.
The scripting method is similar to vision boards in the sense that both practices allow you to vividly imagine your ideal state. However, scripting may be more helpful in outlining changes or shifts you’d want to see and experience in terms of less tangible things like mindsets, life goals, and more. Should you try out the scripting method, don’t be afraid of being very specific about what you want to receive and when you want to receive it.
By the time you end up getting what you want, you’ll be even more satisfied, seeing how you were able to get it on the terms you set for yourself.
3. 12 Week Year
We all have the same 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year, until we… don’t? Based on a book of the same name, the 12 Week Year is a productivity system that tells you to think of every quarter as a year of its own, so you can see faster progress and better agility in setting and achieving your goals.
Built for shorter-term but rather ambitious goals, one can use the 12 Week Year model to keep themselves accountable on fitness and study goals. Aiming to get in shape or acing a test in three months serves as a healthy challenge to people with a need for speed. Rather than waiting for a full calendar year to pass, operating on a quarterly basis can help curb procrastination and put more things in motion.
The 12 Week Year is especially conducive when it’s done methodically and concisely. The titular book offers trackables for users to quantify their progress and successes, and people who’ve found the technique successful advise setting a few actionable goals at a time. It’s worth noting that the 12 Week Year rewards rapid progress rather than textbook perfection, pushing us to get things done.
4. Letters to your future self
In line with the aforementioned scripting method, scheduling emails to yourself a year from now is a nice surprise and present for future you. These letters can contain anything, but I personally use them to ask my future self questions about the year that has passed. Reflecting on those questions exactly a year later allows me to see how my priorities have shifted, and life has changed since.
I’ve been writing letters to my future self using FutureMe for the past 6 years, but have since moved to EmailtoFuture.com after the former site implemented a paywall. If you like to keep things simple, though, your email’s schedule send feature can usually do the trick.
Never too late to start
It’s easy to give up on New Year’s resolutions and goals for the year if there are no proper systems or intentions in place to make these happen. However, it’s surprisingly easy to find that spark or willpower that leads you exactly where you hope to be.
And if you’re reading this past the supposedly acceptable time to plan for the New Year, know that it’s never too late to be anything you desire.
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