The start of a new year seems like the perfect time to make a fresh start, eliminate bad habits, and actively pursue your goals. Unfortunately, many people who pursue their resolutions are not necessarily successful. According to this survey, only 9% of people who made New Year’s Resolutions at the beginning of 2017 felt that they were successful in achieving their goals. Despite this, it is thought that people who have resolutions are 10 times more likely to change their behavior compared to those who do not. The most common resolution is to lose weight, followed by making life/self improvements, and then better financial decisions. Although these are all admirable goals, they are also vague, which is a possible explanation for why people later feel as if they have not reached their resolution goals.
What if we could get better at our resolution process? Although this new year is already underway, it is never too late to set a goal for yourself, or to tweak the current goal or resolution that you already had in mind. The following tips – adapted from an article on the website VeryWell – may be helpful for making and attempting to stick to your 2018 New Year’s Resolutions.
Choose one specific and realistic goal
Although losing weight, exercising more, and making better financial decisions are good resolutions, they are not concrete. It is better to have a more specific goal such as to lose 10 lbs, exercise at least 3 times a week, or to give yourself a limit on how much money to spend on eating out, shopping or other non-essential expenses for the year.
Start with baby steps
Starting to ease into your resolution slowly rather than jumping in head first is a better way to realistically stick to your goals. For example, if your resolution is to start going to the gym regularly, start by consistently scheduling one gym outing per week instead of aiming for 2-3 times per week right away. If you try to do too much too fast, you could end up getting burnt out or even in this case potentially injuring yourself.
Avoid repeating past failures
If you make but do not attain the same resolution year after year, your chances of succeeding this year are probably low. Perhaps instead of repeating this cycle, try something new, or at least a more realistic or specific version or your previous resolution goal.
Remember that change doesn’t happen over night
Realize that it probably took you months or even years to develop whatever poor habits you are now looking to change. It is generally not realistic to expect yourself to replace bad habits with good ones in a matter of days or weeks. It will likely take months of dedication to develop a lasting change in behavior. Although that may be slower than you like, taking a slow but steady approach is more likely to make behavior change stick in the long run.
Have a buddy system
Having a support system is one of the best ways to pursue and maintain a resolution. The best option is to have a friend or family member join you on your trips to the gym or while cooking healthy meals together. If this is not an option, simply having someone support you through your resolution process can be helpful. Keeping a daily journal is another way to hold yourself accountable.
Nobody is perfect and that’s OK
Along the road you may, and probably will, relapse into a bad behavior from time to time. This is often when people give up on their resolutions entirely. Minor stumbles along the way to meeting a goal are expected. It is important to recognize that a misstep has occurred and then to determine why it happened in order to decrease the chances of a relapse happening again. Don’t judge yourself harshly when this occurs. As the familiar refrain goes, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
Let yourself cheat now and then
It is unrealistic to expect to change your diet overnight or to go from not going to the gym at all to working out 7 days each week. In addition to it being acceptable to ease into your resolution, it is also OK to cheat now and then. If it is your birthday, allow yourself a dessert. If you’re feeling unusually stressed and exhausted after work, then taking one day off from the gym is won’t kill you. It’s important to give yourself a break now and then.
We hope these tips have given you some insight into how to actualize your personal goals for 2018. We wish you success in whatever you set out to achieve this year!