6 Tips to Actually Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s Resolutions are a great way to set goals for the new year. However, they are usually easier set than done. This post is going to help you learn 6 tips to actually keep your New Year’s resolutions this year.
On average, 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by mid-February.
So how do you make sure you’re in that 20%? Let’s find out!
But first…it’s important to emphasize the benefits of setting New Year’s resolutions.
There are several benefits to setting New Year’s resolutions:
- Gives you a chance to reflect on the past year
- Opportunity to set goals for yourself and identify your priorities
- Hold yourself accountable
- Added motivation to make healthy changes in your life
- Feeling a sense of achievement when you accomplish something
Now let’s go over the 6 tips to keep New Year’s resolutions
1. Set S.M.A.R.T. resolutions
In order to set an effective resolution, first reflect on what is most important to you. Perhaps you want to focus on your health, work, building relationships, etc.
Was there something you want to change based on the prior year? Or maybe there’s something you’ve always wanted to do…
When you set a resolution, you want to make it a S.M.A.R.T. goal, or specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
If you’re unfamiliar with S.M.A.R.T. goals, I have outlined in detail what each letter means below:
S – Specific: Decide what exactly you want to do. Make your goals particular, not vague. For example, don’t set a goal “save more money”, set a goal to save $5,000 instead.
M – Measurable: Make goals easy to measure success and track progress. So in the previous example, a goal to save $5,000 is measurable because you can measure how much you have saved. You can also track your progress as you work towards your goal.
A – Attainable: You also want to make sure the goal you set is realistic for you to achieve. This is so important because if it starts to feel like your goal is impossible then you will be much more likely to give up.
R – Relevant: It is also important to set goals that are relevant to your life, values, and lifestyle. When you set relevant goals, you will feel more motivated to work towards them and achieve them.
T- Time-bound: Lastly, you want to set goals that are time-bound. This last item means that you set a time frame for when you want to achieve the goal. Most often with resolutions, your timeframe will be the whole year.
Setting time-bound goals allows you to track progress against when you want to achieve the goal. It will also help to keep you motivated. If you don’t give yourself a time-based goal, it can be easy to procrastinate.
To learn more about how to set goals and achieve them, read more here.
2. Prioritize what’s important
Another important aspect in keeping your New Year’s resolutions throughout the year is to prioritize your goals.
If you set 10 resolutions, chances are you won’t be able to keep all of them and may get discouraged.
Change is difficult! Even making a small change in your lifestyle will take time and effort. And the more resolutions you set, the more time and effort it will take to keep them all.
I recommend setting a maximum of three resolutions. By prioritizing your goals, you will be able to better focus on them than if you are trying to make too many changes at once.
3. Plan and build habits
Planning and building habits is critical to success in keeping your New Year’s resolutions.
I recommend using a planner to incorporate your resolutions into your schedule so you don’t lose track of them and push it off when life starts to get busy.
The Self Care Seeker digital planner is tailor made to help you reach your goals. It includes a habit tracker, meal planner, fitness schedule, sleep tracker, and so much more.
Using the habit tracker, you can hold yourself accountable and track progress which will help you then build habits.
Get the complete self care planner now!
4. Give yourself reminders
Another important aspect of maintaining New Year’s resolutions throughout the year is to give yourself regular reminders of your goals.
Setting reminders ensures that your resolutions remain top of mind.
These reminders could be a notification on your phone or a sticky note on your bathroom mirror – whatever works for you.
I also recommend creating a vision board that will act as inspiration and a reminder for your goals.
To learn how to create a vision board, read more here.
5. Find your support system
Finding a support system will help you stick to your resolutions. And support can look like many different things.
By communicating your resolutions to other people in your life, you will be more likely to stick to them. Friends and family may ask about your progress or have tips.
You can also find other people looking to achieve the same goal as you. Maybe you find a new friend at the gym or enlist your significant other to eat healthy with you.
By having someone in your life who is also trying to achieve the same goal, you will be able to support each other when life gets busy.
6. Reward yourself
The last tip to make sure you keep your New Year’s resolutions is to reward yourself for success.
Celebrate milestones throughout the year to keep yourself motivated.
Additionally, be sure to give yourself a big reward at the end of the year for keeping that resolution. You deserve it!
And as a bonus, you’ll be even more likely to keep your resolution next year when you see how good it feels to make that resolution stick.
Those are the 6 tips to keep your New Year’s resolutions all year long.
In addition to the tips to keep your resolutions, it’s also important to avoid some common pitfalls when it comes to setting New Year’s resolutions…
Common New Year’s resolution pitfalls to avoid include…
You lose sight of the why behind your resolution
The “why” behind your resolution is so important! It is the key to your motivation and desire to reach that goal.
If you lose sight of the why, you’ll be more prone to procrastination and abandoning your resolution.
Setting a resolution from a negative perspective
Anything with a negative undertone is never going to stick. Often times goals can come from a negative place when you feel bad about yourself or guilty about your choices.
Instead, take a positive outlook on your resolutions. Don’t set a goal to lose weight because you think you look fat, set a goal to exercise more so you can be healthier and feel more confident.
You don’t set yourself up for success
The last pitfall many people make when working towards New Year’s resolutions is now setting yourself up for success.
Be mindful of setting realistic goals you can actually achieve and that fit into your lifestyle. Use a planner to track your progress and adapt your strategy as needed.
Click here to get the best self care planner that will help you stick to your resolutions.
Don’t fall into the trap of setting New Year’s resolutions only to abandon them after January. Use the tips in this post to set and keep New Year’s resolutions.
Comment below with your New Year’s resolution this year!
