So many people burn out with their New Year’s Resolutions. You don’t have to be among them if you follow these 10 tips.
New Year’s Resolutions get a lot of attention at the first of each year. But it’s usually the wrong kind of attention. Everyone is concerned with making their lists and starting their journey.
Unfortunately, they don’t know much beyond how to start. They haven’t thought about plans for how they’re going to keep the momentum going on into June or September or the end of the year.
This article is for people who have no problem making New Year’s Resolutions but have a lot of trouble keeping them. Following the 10 suggestions set forth here will give you the plans that you need to succeed. Let’s begin!
1. Do Not Set Too Many
The first thing to do if you want to keep those New Year’s Resolutions on track is to check how many you’re actually setting. Keep your list small. This gives you a chance to focus.
Of course, going with a smaller list means that you really should bring out the stops. Focus on the areas of your life that are of the most significance. For many, this means losing waist sizes or making healthier eating and exercising decisions.
For others, it might be doing something to address depression or other health concerns. The main thing is to be micro-focused on the Resolutions that you choose to make. That way, you’ll be pushing to achieve something that can boost your quality of life moving forward.
2. Know What Goes Into It
Don’t set a goal if you’re not sure what goes into it. You are not required to be an expert. You may have to do a lot of research and learning along the way. But have a general idea of the things you’ll need to address to adequately reach your goal.
The reason we emphasize this point is simple. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by some things that you hadn’t foreseen along the way. As a result, you begin to get frustrated and give up.
Put yourself into a position to succeed by giving yourself enough room to accomplish the goals you’re setting. Even if you end up not achieving your goal, having those realistic expectations in place (and planning around them) will get you closer to where you want to be than before.
3. Make A Schedule
Schedules are important for a couple of reasons. First off, they keep you on track. They help you stay alert about the objectives that you’ve set for yourself. Without a routine to follow, it’s very easy to lose track of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done for you to reach your overall goal.
Secondly, a schedule helps you extrapolate large goals into smaller action steps that can be accomplished more easily. This ultimately encourages you to keep with things and give them your best effort.
It does this because you build momentum with each little win along the way. The more wins you acquire, the closer that accomplishing your New Year’s Resolutions will be within your grasp.
4. Find An Accountability Buddy
It’s not always easy to accomplish goals on your own. Particularly, physical goals can be difficult to achieve because there is no one to hold you accountable for eating that doughnut or skipping that workout.
Too many of those “misses” will lead to you abandoning the goal altogether. An accountability buddy helps you avoid this trap. By having someone to call you on your laziness and to motivate you when you’re feeling unmotivated, you can push past the weak spots until a healthy habit forms.
And it’s called an “accountability buddy” for a reason. So, be willing to do the same for them. Even if you’re not shooting for the same goal, checking in on one another from time to time will improve the chances that you each stay the course with whatever your New Year’s Resolutions are.
5. Include A Mix
New Year’s Resolutions are almost always referred to in the plural for a reason. We all have more than one area of our lives that we feel could use improvements. Some of these are large. Some are small.
This is a good thing. You should always have a nice mix of low-hanging fruit and larger goals that you wish to achieve. The smaller accomplishments can serve as great motivation for the bigger ones.
When you start seeing yourself accomplish those smaller objectives, you’ll believe a little more in your ability to do the next right thing with the bigger ones. Each tiny accomplishment that’s part of a bigger whole will take you to where you ultimately wish to be.
6. Prioritize Health Resolutions
“It’s the New Year! Time to get back to the gym!” The idea of prioritizing workouts as one of your New Year’s Resolutions is a cliche at this point, but it’s one worth turning into a reality.
Not because you have something to train for or that you want to look better either. No, it’s worth it because you’re worth it. You should always strive to be the best version of yourself physically for a few reasons.
First off, you’ll live longer and healthier. Secondly, you’ll feel better about yourself psychologically. Lastly, it will help energize you toward other areas of your life that need support. In other words, accomplishing your health goals will make it easier to accomplish other goals because it will be the best version of you going for those improvements.
7. Facilitate Your Focus
Part of making your New Year’s Resolutions work for you is to give them the right environment to succeed. You can’t read more books in the New Year, for example, if your first goal is to turn your television on as soon as you get home or pull YouTube up on your phone during those “down times” between classes.
No, you must tailor the environment to the goal. Working out more, for example, might be bad to attempt in a dorm room with access to all kinds of distractions like cable television and your video game console. A better course of action: go to the gym.
List out each and every one of your New Year’s Resolutions. Then, go over each item and answer this simple question: what’s the best environment I would need to easily accomplish this? Once you have your answer, it’s easier to go about scheduling the time and the place to keep those Resolutions afloat.
8. Reframe Complaints And Negativity
It’s easy to get frustrated when you’re trying to reach a big goal and experience setbacks. Sometimes it can feel short-term cathartic to complain about the trials and tribulations along the way. This isn’t a workable long-term solution, however.
You’ll feel the need to complain and be negative from time to time. But the best thing you can do when those urges hit is to call them out. “Wow, that was a really negative thought or thing to say!” Say that to yourself, and then try to reframe it.
That might mean looking on the bright side of what is going right. It could also mean looking ahead at the new opportunities to improve that lie ahead. There’s no point in sweating it for too long. That will do nothing but self-defeat.
9. Check In On Your Progress
Accomplishing anything significant is difficult when you’re not following a roadmap of progress. You need to stop along the way and check in on how you’re doing. If you don’t, it can lead to trouble.
For starters, you fail to make note of the things that you’ve accomplished to that point. As a result, you can start to feel poorly about the progress you’re making. Secondly, you might find yourself unsure of what should come next. Having those signposts along the way will ensure that no necessary step gets overlooked.
Lastly, checking in every now and then can be encouraging. You can see everything that you’ve achieved so far and feel good about where you are going. It’s empowering to know that you’re getting somewhere, and that’s just the kind of encouragement that can help you to see it through.
10. Make Adjustments
How things play out in your mind isn’t always how they will go in reality. You won’t know how to overcome some challenges until you face them. You also might not realize every challenge to come from the outset of your journey.
If you’re dropping in and taking an overview of your progress, then you’ll inevitably see new ways of approaching your problems. Making those adjustments becomes necessary to your success.
Give yourself permission to stray from the path when it makes sense. Being open to making adjustments, even if it’s to the New Year’s Resolutions themselves, will ensure that the new you that emerges at the end of 2022 is better than the one that you were at the start of it.
Accomplishing New Year’s Resolutions Is All About Persistence
New Year’s Resolutions can be frustrating for so many who fail to set a plan for how they will achieve them. Don’t be one of those people.
If you really want your 2022 to be better than your 2021, then put the suggestions above to work for you. Remember, it’s not enough to have New Year’s Resolutions. You also must have a realistic path to achieving them.
Good luck as you tackle the New Year. And what are some of your resolutions for this year? We’d love to hear them. Share yours in the comments section below.
Aric Mitchell's work appears regularly here at 4tests.com and across the web for sites, such as The Inquisitr and Life'd. A former high school teacher, his passion for education has only intensified since leaving the classroom. At 4tests, he hopes to continue passing along words of encouragement and study tips to ensure you leave school ready to face an ever-changing world.
