I love making New Year’s Resolutions. I like any excuse for a fresh start and each year, I make a list of my resolutions. Yet somehow, I almost never manage to keep them. So this year, I did a lot of research on the best way to make goals you can actually keep and here’s the top tips I learned:
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Make Specific Goals: Rather than saying, I’m going to workout more in 2019, make a specific goal like I’m going to workout three times a week in 2019. This way, it’s easier to hold yourself accountable.
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Don’t give up if you don’t follow it for a few days or weeks. A common theme I found when reading about resolutions is that most people will create a resolution, fail to accomplish it for a week or two and then give up on it all together. But keep up your resolution even if you miss it a few times. You’re only human and trying again is the only way you can reach your goal.
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Check in with yourself each month and make adjustments. Sometimes when we make resolutions, we bite off more than we can chew. So check in at the end of January: did I ask too much of myself this year? How can I change my resolutions to make them more achievable?
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Along the same lines, try to make only a few resolutions. It’s nice to make a long list of ways we want to be better, but realistically, it’ll be tough for you to change a ton of habits. Focus on the most important things and if you check in later in the year, maybe add more!
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Pair an activity you don’t want to do with one that you love. For me, this means watching a really suspenseful show while I run on the treadmill (and only letting myself watch it while I workout). If you pair something you don’t like with something you do, it will make your activity much more enjoyable and may even make you look forward to it!