How to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions

When people make New Year’s resolutions, only a percentage stick to them throughout the whole year. Not only is it imperative to make attainable goals you can achieve, but it’s also crucial to give yourself the ability to stick it out. If you don’t give yourself the chance, you’ll never accomplish what you’re trying to achieve.

Making a habit will help. While it may seem simple, it’s harder than it sounds. Below are some tips that can help you create resolutions you can stick to and help you change your life for the better.

Make Realistic Resolutions

The most important part of sticking to your resolutions is to make them realistic. Think about it. If you simply don’t have the ability to keep up the resolution or it will be unrealistically difficult to do, you probably won’t be successful.

Resolutions shouldn’t be something that is inherently a deprivation or a punitive measure. It should be a habit that you incorporate into your life for the long-term. If you’re looking to do something for one year, it probably won’t be a success.

For example, if your goal is to quit drinking, telling yourself that you can get through a year of abstinence before drinking again may be challenging. Try making smaller, more achievable goals like staying dry for a few months at a time. If that works well then you always have the option to extend it. 

When you want to actually change something about your life, it should be either a gradual or realistic goal like reading a dozen books. If your resolution isn’t realistic and attainable, you won’t accomplish it and incorporate it into your life.

Hold Yourself Accountable

After you have established an achievable and realistic resolution, you will need to hold yourself accountable. You may have it in your mind at the beginning of the year but then forget it as the year continues. It is imperative that you don’t just keep the goal on your mind but gradually incorporate these habits into your life.

If your goal is to read then you should try to read a bit every day. Set a particular daily or weekly goal. If you want to cook more often, go to the store and buy the necessary ingredients for specific meals. If you don’t keep yourself accountable nobody else will.

Give Yourself the Tools

When it comes to resolutions, it is also crucial that you give yourself the tools you need to stick with it. To continue with the reading resolution example, you probably won’t read unless you have books you are excited about. You won’t cook if you don’t have the ingredients you need. It can be tempting to drink if your house is stocked with booze.

Whatever it is that you are looking to accomplish needs to be facilitated by the space, setting, and tools you have around you. While you may think that you can persevere in certain ways, you want to make sticking to your resolution easy. Making it hard on yourself never helped anyone accomplish a resolution. For example, if you are trying to be less obsessed with spending so much time fixing your hair, you can use headbands to keep it out of your face while remaining stylish.

When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, so few people stick to them because they make unrealistic resolutions that are grandiose and don’t hold themselves accountable to keep up with the resolution. People have to give themselves the tools they need to achieve their goals. If you don’t set yourself up for success, you probably won’t be able to stick to your resolution.

Utilizing tools that keep the goal in your mind can help you remember it in your day-to-day. If you want to exercise more, make a schedule. Want to read more books? Determine how much you will need to read per day to get through the number of books you want to finish. If you don’t want to drink, don’t keep alcohol in the house. Don’t go out to bars. If you want to take care of yourself, buy the products that will help you do so.

A plan is necessary, and structure will provide the avenue for you to get this done. Create the structure that you need for your resolution today, and you will see the difference. You’ll keep to it and find yourself happier and healthier when you do.

Tips contributed by Anne Davis