It’s that time of year again. The beginning of it. When you make promises to yourself and most likely break all of them. Fear not! There is a way to follow through on all of your New Year’s resolutions and I’m about to share that secret with you. Well, actually I’m going to share a list of tips to help you along the way, but you get the idea…
1. Don’t give yourself too many resolutions. If you have too many goals set for yourself you are bound to forget about at least one of them or simply become overwhelmed and give up. I would suggest setting 1-5 goals for this year and making most of them small goals like quitting soda or keeping up on laundry better.
2. Only set 1 or 2 major goals. This goes along with the first one; if you have too many big resolutions it’s easy to let one of them slip. If you only have 1 or 2, they are easier to follow through on and keep track of.
3. Don’t get discouraged if you fail a little bit. You can always pick it back up any time; just because it’s not January 1st doesn’t mean you can’t start fresh. Besides, picking up where you left off is not the same thing as starting over. You’ve already made progress and starting again will be easier than starting over.
4. Don’t share your resolutions with anyone. If you don’t tell anyone else, it actually makes you more likely to follow through on goals because telling others can sometimes make us feel accountable to them. We have to complete our resolution because if we don’t so-and-so will know. If you don’t share them, you are only accountable to yourself and are more likely to continue doing something because you are doing it for yourself and not others.
5. Start out slow. Especially for big resolutions like going to the gym or getting a 4.0. Those are some big life changes and they can take time. Be patient with yourself. It’s going to be hard at first, but after about a month it will start to feel a lot easier. Starting slow allows you to ease into it. Maybe start by setting smaller goals that work into your larger ones. For example, going to the gym once a week and working up to 3 times a week. Give yourself time to grow.
6. Don’t let other people’s success discourage yours. Other people are only ever going to advertise the good. You don’t know what resolutions they let fall to the wayside throughout the year! They might seem like they have it all figured out, but they don’t.
I hope these tips help you on your way to a happier and brighter 2020!