Struggling to keep to your New Year's Resolutions?
Every year millions of us make New Year’s Resolutions. As a consequence, every year millions of us break them. On average 25% of the population vow to make a change, however, within two-three weeks almost half have quit.
Below are my top five steps for maintaining your goals and resolutions for 2021.
1: Limit Your New Year's Resolutions
The first tip is to limit the number of changes you are looking to make. For instance, do not go overboard and try to change every single element of your life in one go. It will soon become very overwhelming and it will ultimately set you up for failure and demotivation.
To start, let’s pick three, realistic New Year’s Resolutions. Most importantly, if you feel in four months’ time you have completed one, or all three, you can add more if you want to. Taking the challenge on in small chunks is more manageable. By creating clear and concise goals for yourself, it will set you up to achieve and conquer in 2021.
2: Break Your Resolutions Down
You now have your three main goals/resolutions for 2021, let’s take the second tip and break them down.
So, if you create smaller steps for your goal, it will provide you with a clear path to follow. Most importantly, these steps will then help you stick to your journey in easy daily or weekly breakdowns. We can then add smaller milestones into the mix. Therefore, by ticking off and completing each mini goal within your resolution, you will gain a sense of achievement and be able to track your journey to success. Getting organised and writing down your lists/goals will start you off on the right foot.
For example, the resolution is to lose weight, we can break it down into further steps/goals…
Steps to follow:
1 – Go to the gym 3x a week
2 – Cut out alcohol
3 – Cut out unhealthy snacks
Milestones:
1 – Lose 6lbs
2 – Lose 1 stone
3 – Lose 1 ½ stone
3: Talk about it!
Always look for motivation within yourself first, however, a push in the right direction helps too. Firstly, a great idea is to discuss your goals and resolutions with your family and friends. Ask the people around you for support and encouragement. Do you have a like-minded friend that may want to join you? Working on something as a pair or in a group is more fun and you are more likely to stick to it.
4: Reward Yourself
A great way to inspire motivation is by a reward for achieving your goal. Some may find it easy to find motivation and enjoy the satisfaction of achievement itself, but if you require that added incentive to drive you forward, then why not?
The reward may be within the goal itself, ie) saving £200 every month and the end reward is the new car that you have saved for. Furthermore, you could add your own incentives on top. The reward may be a new wardrobe or a beach holiday once you’ve lost a certain amount of weight. By adding that extra encouragement, you will give yourself another reason to go the extra mile to achieve.
5: It is a journey
Your New Year’s Resolutions are a journey. On this journey, you may encounter obstacles, a bad day or demotivation. Most importantly, if this happens, it does not mean complete failure, it is simply a bump in the road.
The key is not to be so hard on yourself. In other words, if you eat a bar of chocolate on your new healthy lifestyle diet, you have not failed. If you do not save that £200 a month for the new car, you have not failed. If you are having a bad day, you have not failed. Believe in yourself and in your journey. Keep going and achieve your goal.
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