How to make 2024 the best year of your life

3 2 1 New Year's resolutions.

The helpful tool, or a stressful mandate that society seems to expect of us every year? Probably both! If you're like me, you think about making a list of what you want to accomplish or the type of person you want to become when the clock strikes midnight. But usually, that list never makes it onto a piece of paper.

We've been told that a new year is a perfect opportunity to start our next chapter, to kickstart our health, our relationships, our careers. It can feel overwhelming, and we expect something of ourselves. But let's take the pressure off for a second. Instead of forcing ourselves to suddenly become enlightened and successful beyond our wildest dreams, can we break down our approach to a new year?

Here's how we can all conquer 2024. If the idea of resolutions feels like it comes with a weighty expectation, we could think instead about simply setting some goals. The act of goal setting has been linked to higher motivation, self-esteem, confidence, and autonomy. Because the moment that we think about a goal, our brain will keep nudging us until we take action to work towards it.

This is why we feel guilty if we lie on the couch when we've been thinking about getting into shape, or why we kick ourselves when we go out to an expensive dinner after assessing our dwindling finances. We know what is best for us, but until we decide to do something about it, our brain is just going to keep reminding us that we haven't taken action yet.

Studies have shown that goal setting rewires our brains. We all have neuroplasticity—the ability to modify and adapt our brains in response to specific actions and stimuli in our lives. Goal setting can be one of those stimuli. And once we have a goal, our brain creates new, stronger bonds between the neurons that are working to help us achieve it. We feel good when we're working towards a goal because our brains are getting stronger; it's getting some exercise of its own.

So before we even get into specifics, are there any goals immediately coming to mind? Write them down. Make a mental note. Listen to what your brain is telling you it needs because you know you better than anyone else.

This year, some goals feel pretty universal, like spending less time looking at screens. The average person spends 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone every single day, and one in five people spend more than 4.5 hours on their phone each day. Most of us use our phones more during the week than on weekends, which tells us that we're constantly looking for distractions from work or anything else that feels boring and laborious as we wait for the fun that's ahead during the weekend.

But do we need our phones to feel occupied, to bring us joy, to combat boredom? Long hours on our phones have been tied to spikes in insulin and blood glucose levels and can lead to the accumulation of more fat in our bloodstream. All of this puts us at risk for diabetes. Not to mention the physical strain of staring at our phones all day or the sleep deprivation we've all experienced when we doom scroll before we go to bed. And the doom scroll doesn't usually lead to anything productive anyway, does it?

Once in a while, you might find an ad for the perfect pair of jeans, but typically it just cuts at our self-esteem. So in 2024, what if we use those options on our phones to limit screen time? Keep things realistic—not to swear off technology forever, but to remember what we find on the internet is only one piece of the puzzle of our lives.

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Back to our story: Many of us use the internet and social media as an essential tool to stay informed. One way to have a productive 2024 is to keep on top of what's happening in the world. We have wars across the globe, political elections, and no shortage of oppression and violence. But we also have stories of hope from all corners of the world that can bolster the negativity we might feel about the current state of affairs.

In 2023, 38% of Americans reported avoiding the news altogether. Yes, that avoidance can spare yourself the stress and anxiety that inevitably comes from knowing how bad things are getting, but it also means you miss out on the stories of perseverance and inspiration that might provide some motivation and encouragement for your own life.

The truth is that cutting ourselves off from the world news doesn't stop it from being true. In 2024, can we try to stay engaged without going crazy? To commit to being informed and educated, but not letting the high stakes of what's happening worldwide take over our well-being? This delicate balance of looking outward while also turning inward is one of the critical factors to a successful year ahead.

Taking care of ourselves is paramount every year. And as time goes on, taking care of ourselves looks different. Maybe you're in the season of your life where your physical health is the thing to focus on. Take 2024 to commit to regular exercise, a healthy diet, and not skipping the annual doctor's checkup, as tempting as it might be. Taking care of yourself is more psychological.

This is the year you can start meditating, enjoying the proven stress-reducing effects of a practice that's been around for thousands of years. Or you can finally call that therapist someone recommended last year and take a leap of faith to feel better. Whatever taking care of yourself looks like for you this year, listen to your intuition.

We've become a society obsessed with self-help. There's an entire industry sprung up around it. There's enough gurus on social media and books sold on Amazon for a lifetime of advice. Some of the advice is good, and it's meant to help you, but sometimes the advice is crafted to make us rely on someone else and their supposed expertise to feel better so that we buy their products and subscribe to their channels.

On your journey to take care of yourself this year, don't be afraid to seek guidance. But also remember that you are ultimately the one who will take action to help yourself. Trust your instincts, stay the course, and congratulate yourself as you improve because you don't really owe that success to anyone else but you.

Of course, feeling good about ourselves can require more than just our mental and physical health. We live in a world where money is essential. Setting financial goals can be incredibly helpful, as long as we don't put all our happiness in our financial success. If you're starting 2024 with a good job, a stable salary, and some extra money as a cushion, you should be proud of what you've accomplished.

If you aren't thinking about this upcoming year as a fresh start, it might be a helpful mindset to put yourself in. Just like the work of self-improvement, there is no shortage of books and seminars that tell us how to earn and manage our money. Find the people and the programs that you trust. Maybe they're online, maybe they're in person, but whoever they are, take this year to vet them and find a system that works for you so that, whether you have the money now or you'll have it at some point, you feel good about how you can set yourself up for financial success.

Maybe this isn't the moment to try and save money if you're just scraping by, but if you have extra income floating around, save it! Invest it! The past year has been tumultuous and difficult financially in so many respects. But in the United States and other countries worldwide, it's been one of the best years for the stock market. In the US, the S&P 500 rose 24% in 2023, well above the average annual growth. If you can find the means to invest your money in the stock market, real estate, or other places this year, don't be shy; give yourself the gift this year of a more fruitful future.

And if you don't feel like you have enough money, one way to conquer this year isn't to be afraid of thinking about it. Money often makes us emotional because we tie our happiness and success to the number in our bank account. But what if we didn't give that power to our finances? Instead, can we approach our budget and finances practically? Because money is, after all, a practical matter.

But we live in a world that likes to feed us videos of people lounging in bathtubs full of money, accentuating our feeling of scarcity. And that feeling of not having enough turns into a sense of not being enough. Let 2024 be the year of thinking and caring about money, but not putting our self-worth in its hands. And if you have it and want to spend it, spend it, but maybe put a little more thought into what you spend it on.

You can create a list of things you want before you make the purchase. If an item is racking around in your brain for days and weeks, then it's probably worth getting. But if you forget about that iPad you thought you wanted or the expensive face cream you saw on Instagram, they're probably not meant to be in your possession.

These things might make up some highs of your year when you finally get the car you wanted, pay off your student loans, or buy the most amazing meal for yourself. But you know what trumps all of those things? The relationships you have in your life.

Take a moment to think about who you're grateful for, who you love, who you wish you saw more of. The cultivation of our relationships is a goal in and of itself. The more time we put into building intimate bonds and larger communities around us, the happier we'll be. And that community might be online or with people on the street. Wherever you find valued relationships, keep them strong this year. You might just find that once you do, all your other goals just fall into place.

Try new things. Explore the unknown. Dive into a hobby or an activity that used to scare you. Test your limits within reason and see if you can discover something new about yourself. Tell people you love them or hustle for that jump in your career you know you can make. Ask for advice and give advice when asked. These are things you can do to feel on top of the world this year.

And some are small, and others are much larger and harder. But each goal, no matter the size or the outcome, gives us direction to feel like this year was worth it.

With that said, one thing we can be sure of is that in 2024, like every other year, we should expect the unexpected. In 2020, we all set our goals, consciously or unconsciously. We wanted to travel, spend more time with friends, or go to that new restaurant that was opening around the block. And then, in March, the world changed, and our plans were put on hold.

We most likely won't have another global pandemic in 2024—knock on wood—but the unexpected will surely make its way into your life. So, as you prepare to conquer 2024, give yourself the flexibility to have a great year, or maybe just a good year. Allow for the possibility of tragedy and also for incredibly unexpected joy.

As we set our goals, let them be our guideposts instead of a linear path that we need to take. Going with the flow might be hard for you, or it might be the most natural thing in the world. Either way, find your balance of determination and adaptability.

You can call them resolutions or something else entirely, but give yourself a second to think about what you want in the year ahead. Recognize that even if you don't get to it all, you're playing a conscious and active role in your own life. And that's how you conquer 2024 and every year to come!