Have you noticed a trend at the start of every year? You think about all the things you would like to do better for the new year, but you can’t seem to make it past January. So what happens? Well, in my case, I lose focus on the things I want to do because I either forget about them, think no one notices so I simply stop doing them, or give up because they’re too hard. Make it a point this year to keep your New Year’s resolutions this year! Do something for yourself for the sake of doing it. If you’ve made resolutions that you really think will keep you healthy, or help you do better in school, or keep in touch with old friends, then do it because YOU want to and not because it’s a resolution. Here are 5 ways to help you remember those resolutions and hopefully help you keep it up all the way to December.
1.) Write your resolutions on different sticky notes and paste them to your mirror.
This is something I’ve personally noticed helps me to simply remember I made a promise to myself to do something good for ME during the year. This will keep your resolutions at the front of your mind so you are constantly thinking about them making it harder to “forget” about them and give yourself a reason to stop doing them. However, it doesn’t work if your placement of the sticky notes isn’t somewhere you will see every day. So make sure that you put them somewhere you know you’ll look every day and really focus on them. It’s easy to glance over something because it becomes apart of the background the longer it stays there. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN! Move them around if you notice you start to ignore those reminders and this will keep them fresh in your mind.
2.) Write about them in your blog.
If you keep up with a personal blog, then write about your new years resoultions. Then, talk about how you’re doing with those resolutions, and BE HONEST. If you’re not keeping up with them, make yourself a virtual promise to get back on track. You can also have your followers comment on your blog if they see you haven’t been writing about your resolutions. This may increase your chances of sticking with those promises to yourself and you’ll feel much better about it in the end.
3.) Keep yourself accountable by telling other people.
In a way, this is like your blog, but if you don’t have a blog or have found blogging isn’t a good reminder to you, then telling your close friends (those who you know will jump at the opportunity to remind you about your resolutions) will help those resolutions become apart of your life. This is a good opportunity to keep each other accountable for each other’s resolutions. You may find that you make a closer bond with your accountability partner because you both have something that binds you to the other. Plus, you could reward each other for each month you stick to your resolutions.
4.) Make resolutions you know you will want to do.
Don’t have resolutions that are out of your comfort zone or something you clearly don’t want to give up. It will make it that much harder to keep them if you never had it in you to give them up in the first place. If you know you drink too much soda, but love soda more than air, then instead of cutting them out of your diet completely, just limit yourself to three sodas a week, or something along those lines. This way, you still are doing something great for your body, but you can also keep something you love and it becomes your reward when you stick to your resolution.
5.) Don’t make more resolutions than you can keep.
It’s not about how long your list of resolutions is, it’s about the quality of the resolution. Make your list depend on things that will be helpful to you in the long run, but don’t go overboard. Understand your limits and don’t try to give up everything at once. Try a few things this year, and if you see that you did really well with those few resolutions, add a few more for next year. Trying to elimiate all your bad habits within one year is a lot for anyone to take on, so understand that you have the rest of your life to make it exactly how you want it to be. You might notice that slowly giving up bad habits over a longer period of time will actually help you keep your resolutions because you didn’t try to take away everything all at once.
Good luck on your resolutions, readers!