It’s finally nearing the end of 2017. We all promised ourselves we were going to do things along the lines of getting in shape, working to be a better person, and taking complete control of our lives last New Year’s. Unfortunately, as the story goes for most of us, these plans for turning into our ideal selves quickly falls through the cracks right when we’re thrown back into the world of work and responsibilities. We feel that we don’t have time for these “petty” promises we made ourselves not too long ago and other more “important” things dominate our lives. New Year’s resolutions are never supposed to be easy and we know this when we make them. However, we lose sight of everything we promise ourselves before we even get to truly be challenged by these changes. Despite the hardships of following through with our New Year’s resolutions, one thing is for sure: your goals don’t have to fall through. It’s difficult and it’s truly a challenge and only a few of us have ever successfully achieved a New Year’s resolution and saw it through, but 2018 should be different. This year, put yourself first. Put who you want to be first.
First things first, you need to remember that your New Year’s resolutions aren’t going to magically come true on January 1st…or even in the month of January. Also, remember that sometimes you’re going to mess up. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to throw away your entire goal just because you encountered bumps along the way or because you deem your goal too difficult to achieve. Be reasonable with yourself. You’re human and you’re going to mess up, but you need to power on. You owe yourself that.
Second, you need to find time for yourself. This can be challenging and seemingly impossible with our busy lives, but this is nonnegotiable. If you want to become the person you want to be and/or be able to improve yourself in any way, you need to make time to take care of yourself. Stop spreading yourself too thin and stop putting everything but yourself on your top priority list. Being too busy to fulfill your resolutions is no longer an acceptable excuse. Don’t look back on your life years from now full of regret because you never set aside the time you needed for you.
Finally, you need to become your #1 supporter. It’s good to critique yourself when you know you can improve in a certain area, but we all have the tendency to tear ourselves down way more than we ever try to build ourselves up. If we can’t learn to forgive ourselves for the mistakes we make and like who we see when we look in the mirror, it makes it unnecessarily hard to achieve any goals we set for ourselves. Dwelling on the past should, well, become a thing of the past. You may have a supportive best friend, significant other, family member, etc. that’s always there for you, but if you can’t be there for yourself then any support they offer you will fall short.
2018 is going to be full of ups and downs even if you don’t want to admit that to yourself yet. But no matter what obstacles you face or how much you struggle to fulfill your New Year’s resolutions, you can be in charge of you this year. There are many things you can’t control but you’re not one of those things. While it will be challenging, make sure to always keep in mind how excited you are right now to start your resolutions. Sooner or later you’re going to want to give up on your resolutions because they seem unrealistic or too difficult to maintain, but it doesn’t have to be that way. When you start second-guessing your resolutions after the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, remember why you came up with them in the first place. If they are things that you truly want to see done, then the reasoning behind them should be enough to power you through. 2018 can be the year you always remember, or it can be just another year in the books. The choice is up to you.