Five Ways To Help You Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

Do You Struggle Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions?

As you reflect on your past year, how many of your goals did you reach? If I were to guess, you probably had a variety of successes and fails throughout the last year. You might have succeeded in making more friends but struggled getting in shape. You may have really struggled with saving money but had an easier time limiting social media. It’s also possible that you made little to no progress on any of your goals. Regardless of where you’re at, this article is here to help you find new ways to succeed at making New Year’s resolutions. Before we get to the strategies for how to make New Year’s resolutions, we need to explore why they commonly fail.

Reasons Why You Don’t Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

• You set the bar too high
  One of the most popular purchases during the new year are gym memberships. You are excited at the idea of getting in shape and commit to a rigorous workout regimen. This often includes working out for an hour multiple times a week and adapting a new diet that cuts out all of your favorite foods. This sounds good in theory until the 2nd or 3rd week of having to do it. You then run out of steam and completely give up on your goals.

• You make too many goals
  After making a goal with your partner to have a date night once a week, you start thinking about all of the other things you need to change. You then make goals to spend less money, save for retirement, and improve your mental health. Before you know it, you have a ton of different things on your plate that you either forget what your goals are or just don’t have enough energy to tend to them.

• You do it all by yourself
  You’re setting yourself up for failure when you privately set a goal to change your diet without telling anyone else about it. Now, no one can hold you accountable, no one can be sensitive to the food they offer you, and no one can cheer you on when you start losing steam.

• You don’t cut down
  Being too busy makes it difficult to fully commit to new routines and habits. Having enough time doesn’t actually mean that you have enough energy or motivation to see things through. Before committing to a new goal, you need to take stock of the current time and energy you have to succeed.

• You don’t readjust
  Most of the time, you’re overly ambitious when you set goals. You want to read 20 pages of a book a day, work out for an hour 4 times a week, and only have dessert once a week. The problem with not readjusting is that you will often neglect the entire goal because you’re discouraged that you set the bar too high. You will then criticize yourself for not hitting the bar instead of simply lowering the bar to something more manageable.

• You aren’t specific enough
  Simply saying that you want to be more healthy, you want to save money, and you want to make progress in your career is not going to work. Your goals need to be specific and measurable. You will struggle with meeting any goal or expectation if there is not a clear path for how you are supposed to do that.

• You aren’t considering the obstacles
  It’s rare for things to turn out as expected. There’s going to be unexpected expenses, changes to your routine, and fluctuations throughout your year. There are going to be things that come easier to you and things that are much more difficult than expected. In order to succeed at making goals, you have to assume that obstacles will appear and have a plan for how to address them.

Now that we know some of the common reasons why people drop their New Year’s resolutions, we can focus on how to effectively meet your goals in the new year.

How To Set Achievable New Year’s Resolutions

1. Start small with your goals
   Consistency is more important than quantity when it comes to making a goal. Going on a walk every day after dinner is much more valuable than working out rigorously for 2 months and then quitting. Cutting out soft drinks and replacing them with water is more valuable than giving up sugar for a month and then returning to your old diet. As a rule of thumb, make goals based on your motivation level on days where you feel bad. When you are absolutely exhausted from work, how much will you realistically workout that week? When you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed, how much time will you spend learning a new skill? You can always build on smaller routines, and you can always go above and beyond your goals when you feel like it. However, setting the bar too high will often discourage you from doing anything at all.

2. Explore why you failed to meet this goal in the past
   Did you give up your goal because you were too busy? Did you run out of steam because you set the bar too high? Did you stop pursuing the goal because you didn’t really care much for it anyway? Before you commit to a goal, you need to understand the reasons you’ve struggled meeting this goal in the past. These reasons will most likely come up again unless you take active steps in address them

3. Make a plan and be willing to readjust it
   If you want to work out every week, specify the day you want to work out and for how long you want to do it. If you want to save money every month, set aside a certain amount and try sticking to your budget. Being specific with your plan makes it much easier for you to track and monitor your progress over time. You also need to readjust when there are changes to your routine that make it difficult for you to continue meeting your goals. If you are going through a busy season at work, reevaluate what you can comfortably commit to so that you don’t give up on your goals entirely. Likely, this means that you need to be comfortable temporarily lowering your goals to fit your season of life.

4. Give yourself grace for falling off the wagon
   You’re not always going to be consistent in meeting your goals. You’re going to have weeks you forget, days you run out of steam, and unforeseen obstacles that shake up your life. When these things happen, don’t spend time bashing yourself for falling off the wagon. Instead, recommit to your goals and continue your routines.

5. Focus on how your goals will add value to your life
   It’s easier to keep your momentum when you have the benefits at the end in mind. Having more financial security, being in better shape, having more time for the things you love, and being able to learn important skills will add a lot of value to your life. Validate yourself for every single step you take towards meeting your goal. Every step gets you a little closer to living the life you want to live.

Challenges And Questions

• What are your New Year’s resolutions?

• What areas do you need to cut back or adjust to ensure you have the time and energy for your resolutions?

• What are the main obstacles to meeting your resolutions?

• How will meeting these goals add value to your life?