As the new year approaches, you might have set some goals for the new year. This popular tradition encourages people to view the new year as a fresh start. One of the positives about January resolutions is their popularity; you’re likely to be surrounded by other people making changes to their own lives and you can support each other to stick with the changes.
Do I need to set New Year’s resolutions?
No, New Year’s resolutions aren’t mandatory. If you’re happy with yourself and your life, you can enter the New Year as you left the last one. There’s no reason to try to make changes you don’t feel passionately about.
However, if you have changes you’d like to make, New Year is the perfect time to make them. Why? Because many people around you will be implementing changes to their own lives.
If you want to start exercising more frequently, you will probably have friends and family members doing the same and you can buddy up and encourage each other.
New Year’s resolutions – ideas
If you’re scouring the Internet searching for New Year’s resolution ideas, this is perhaps a sign you don’t need to set any. However, if you are keen to set yourself some challenges for the New Year, you might be looking for inspiration. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when you consider advertising at this time of year, the most common resolutions focus on health, diet and weight loss.
Other popular resolution themes include improving organizational skills, career advancements and striving towards better relationships. Financial goals are popular, too, with many people choosing the New Year to start working towards saving goals and better financial habits.
If, for your resolution, you’re hoping to eat better as a family and to be more organized next year, then our meal planning tips might help.
Take a look at Meal Planning – Helpful Meal Planning Tips For Families.
New Year’s resolutions you can actually keep
New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep and many people fail within weeks of the New Year. Why do so many New Year’s resolutions fail? How can you increase your chances of success?
Keep reading to find out what steps you can take to stick to your resolutions this year.
A 2020 study published in Plos One found that people were more likely to stick to their New Year’s resolutions if they were approach-centered rather than avoidance-centered. For example, striving towards a healthier diet overall is better than limiting your chocolate intake. If losing weight is your goal, picking up healthier habits might serve you better than cutting out foods you enjoy.
1. Be realistic
You aren’t going to be able to change your entire personality overnight. You’ll be the same person when you wake up on January 1st as when you went to bed the night before, so you need to plan for a New Year’s resolution you can actually keep.
There’s no point in setting a New Year’s resolution to swim every day if you currently struggle to find the time. Instead, set a New Year’s resolution to swim twice a week; this is a more manageable change and one you have more chance of achieving.
2. Have clear expectations for yourself
Clear, measurable goals will help you to stay on track. Vague goals such as ‘eat better’ or ‘save money’ are hard to capitalize on. If you don’t know what you’re aiming for, you’ll struggle to feel any sense of achievement.
If you plan to ‘eat healthy,’ have you failed if you eat one chocolate bar? Instead, opt for clear, tangible goals such as eating whole foods two days a week or going to the gym three times a week. With clear, measurable goals, you can keep yourself on track and celebrate your achievements.
3. Break it down into bite-size chunks
If your personal goals are too big, they can feel unachievable. Instead, break them down into smaller goals; you’ll still be working towards the same goals and can focus on getting where you want to be. Having smaller, more realistic goals will be better than having good intentions for resolutions you can’t achieve in one go.
If you’ve chosen big-picture goals, break them down into smaller achievable goals that you can work through at your own pace. For example, if you’re working towards being debt-free, work out an achievable amount you can aim to pay off each month.
4. Plan the details
To improve your chance of smashing your New Year’s resolutions, you need to have a plan from day one. Although you might start the new year felling motivated (‘new year, new you’), this motivation will naturally wane after a couple of weeks.
So whether you’re trying to quit smoking, curb your drinking or exercise more regularly, have plans for when the going gets tough. Who will help you stay on the straight and narrow? How can you stay motivated even when you want to abandon your New Year resolutions? Put plans in place now to help you stay strong.
5. Have long-term goals
To help you succeed in this year’s resolutions, you should see them as long-term changes rather than short-term goals. For example, if you hope to lose weight, you should instigate long-term changes such as choosing healthier food options and exercising regularly rather than a short-term goal to get down to a certain weight.
Think carefully about your New Year’s resolutions and what you’re hoping to achieve. Then, think of ways to push yourself out of your comfort zone to achieve each New Year resolution. Don’t forget to celebrate your wins but keep focused on the long-term goal at the end of the tunnel.
6. Track your progress
If you’re into data and ticking things off your to-do list, make sure you track your progress. Keeping track of how you’re doing can motivate you and help you stay on track. For example, a health-tracking app can help you track your exercise, your steps and your resting heart rate. Alternatively, you can create a low-key tracker by coloring in a daily square each time you take a step toward achieving your resolution.
It’s totally up to you how you choose to keep track of your progress, but monitoring your changes can help you to stay motivated and keep working towards your goals. Having your wins mapped out can keep you motivated even when life gets in the way. You’ll still be able to see how far you’ve come, which can help you stay motivated toward your end goal.
7. Accept your mistakes
One of the most common reasons people fail in their resolutions is because they abandon their goals as soon as they make a mistake. For example, people aiming to eat healthily will abandon their plan as soon as they eat a chocolate bar. Instead, it would be better if you accepted that mistakes will happen. Sometimes, life will get in the way.
You are human, which means you will make mistakes, but you shouldn’t use this as an excuse for failing. Instead, get yourself back on track and keep working towards your goal. And add more support to help you stay on track in the future. Good luck!
