How to Make Your New Year's Resolutions Stick

Traditionally every January, gym sales soar from the wave of new year's resolutions to exercise — but they quickly decline over the next few months. Relatable, right? However, instead of blaming our own self-will, we can change for the next year by setting new year's resolutions that have the right balance of ‘realisticness' and challenge that you can feel better about working towards. After all, the point of a new year's resolution should be to improve yourself. If you set unreachable goals that you know you will fail at, it will only act as a setback.

Traditionally every January, gym sales soar from the wave of new year’s resolutions to exercise — but they quickly decline over the next few months. Relatable, right? However, instead of blaming our own self-will, we can change for the next year by setting new year’s resolutions that have the right balance of ‘realisticness’ and challenge that you can feel better about working towards. After all, the point of a new year’s resolution should be to improve yourself. If you set unreachable goals that you know you will fail at, it will only act as a setback.

Start small and set different levels of whatever you want to accomplish. You can set levels according to time. For example, you may start off by going for 1 month of daily exercise. After you’ve achieved that, strive for the next level: another month. This way, you can feel good about yourself for at least reaching the first goal. Additionally, you would feel much less intimidated to work towards smaller goals than a grandiose, almost impossible, goal.

Creating a vague goal will only deter your efforts to reach your resolutions. Instead, try making them measurable, giving a specific number to your goal. For example, you may write, “Drink 1L of water every day for 1 month.” Or, you may write, “Call family on the 1st of every month in 2021.” This way, not only do you have an exact idea of your plan, but you also have a metric to measure your progress.

Once you know your goal, figure out what exactly you need to do to meet that goal. Do you need to set an alarm or reminder on your phone? Do you need to tell your friends and family to keep you accountable? Remember — these steps should be as specific and realistic as possible. The process of creating the game plan itself should feel empowering and more encouraging for you to meet your goals.

In the end, you should feel proud of yourself for at least trying — even if you do not reach your resolution. The effort you put in to at least meet the resolution would have made you a better person than before you tried in the first place. Make sure to remind yourself that your efforts to meet your resolutions are for yourself, and no one else, so there is no need to feel disappointed if those resolutions are not made.