Brilliant

A TikToker Put Her New Year’s Resolutions On A Bingo Card, & It’s So Smart

Pro tip: include a free space for surviving the year before.

by Deirdre Kaye
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
TikToker Michelle Wintersteen created a Bingo card designed for New Year's Resolutions.
@mkwcreative.co/TikTok

Making New Year's Resolutions — setting objectives and clarifying intentions for the next 12 months — can be helpful to many people... if you can keep those resolutions, that is. There's a reason these beginning-of-year goals have become sort of a standing joke! But one TikToker may have found the solution to getting your lofty ambitions to stick: put 'em on a Bingo card.

Michelle Wintersteen, owner and creative director of MKW Creative Co., shared the concept on TikTok shortly after the holidays, explaining, "Instead of vision boards, our team made Bingo cards for our 2024 goals."

The gist? Making the Bingo cards fun and colorful turns your resolutions into something you'll actually look forward to, as opposed to viewing them as just a long list of sh*t you feel pressure to do this year.

There's no denying that January organically serves as an excellent time to think about the last 12 months and what you want the next 52 weeks to look like. Not to mention, you got a brand-new Ted Lasso calendar for Christmas that you can't wait to fill out and start using. (Don't forget to mark your next period, babe!).

But once the novelty of the new year wears off and the tedium of everyday life picks back up, it's easy to lose sight of the things you hoped to accomplish in this fresh calendar year. That's why Resolutions Bingo is brilliant — it's active, not passive, and knocking off enough goals to get a "bingo" on your card becomes a goal in itself.

As Wintersteen explains in her TikTok, her Bingo card is for her company team. When one commenter asked what the prize is for the first person to mark off five resolutions in a row, she responded, "First team member to bingo gets the spa service of their choice!"

The idea is easily adapted for personal resolutions, too. You could even make a spa day for yourself one of the prizes! Other prize ideas could include a girls' trip, a mini-shopping spree, a new book for your TBR pile, and more.

With nearly a million views, Wintersteen's video obviously makes sense to a lot of people.

"Wait, I love," one commenter wrote.

"Oooh, I'm so gonna do this!" gushed another.

One fan of the concept made quick work of putting it into action, circling back to share, "Just had my girls over last night, and we filled in our 2024 bingo cards 💜"

And then there were commenters who came with clever spins of their own for the idea, with one suggesting, "This but for a book club 🤩"

There are a few key reasons Resolutions Bingo is so brilliant.

1. You're a winner even if you don't finish everything on your list.

Most of us goal-setters are narrowly focused. If we don't accomplish everything on our lists, we consider it a "loss." But if you remember Bingo rules, you know that you don't need to check every box to be a winner — you just need to get five in a row.

2. It taps into your competitive nature.

A list is so formal and overbearing. A vision board doesn't always feel actionable. The chance to cross off a square or create a little line of crossed boxes, though? It sends shivers down your ultra-competitive spine. It's also a great motivational system for visually-minded thinkers since it shows you what you want to do and what you've already done (not to mention a therapeutic way to check stuff off).

3. It celebrates small victories.

While setting 25 firm goals for the new year might be challenging, you can always set micro-goals. Either way, Resolutions Bingo sets you up for some "easy wins." You may only make 80 Etsy sales this year instead of the 100 you'd hoped for, but since you broke up your card into 20-sale increments, you still crossed off four squares.

Ready to get your own Resolutions Bingo rolling? Due to popular demand, Wintersteen went ahead and made her super-cute and fun template available for purchase. However, if you're a little computer savvy, you can easily DIY your own Resolutions Bingo card at home.

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