Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution and then didn’t follow through? The truth is, you are not alone. People across the US, from Fresno to Pittsburgh, all deal with the same struggle during the New Year—keeping that New Year’s resolution. It’s tough to keep promise that you make to yourself. But, it’s not impossible to follow through. After all, you don’t want to let yourself down.
Try out these five tips for keeping you New Year’s Resolution, and you will see that it’s not as hard as it seems.
Tips on Keeping Your New Years Resolution
Be Realistic
When it comes to your New Year’s Resolution, you want to make sure it realistic for you to complete. It’s easy to lose track of your goal when you set your expectations too high. Achieving goals that are too high for you is unlikely.Odds are you will think they are too hard and veer off track.
Try this rule of three when making your New Year’s Resolution. Ask yourself
- How hard will it be for me to complete?
- What will it take for me to be successful?
- How much time or effort do I have to put into it?
PROS and CONS List
It may be best to make a PROS and CONS list of your New Year’s Resolution to know if it’s the best fit for you. It will give you a clear perspective, so you can see if you are actually willing to complete it.
A PROS and CONS list would also help you to better understand the target you are going for, and how difficult or easy it may be to complete it.
Plan Ahead
Planning is very important when it comes to your New Year’s Resolution. You want to have an idea of what you are doing before New Year’s Day.Writing out your New Resolution before New Year’s Day is crucial because you will already have an idea of what you would like to do. If you made your resolution New Year’s Day, you are less likely to find success.
When you plan, you also allow yourself to become more prepared for the year to come. Knowing when, where, or what you need to do ahead of time allows you to become more focused on your resolution when the new year starts.
Start with Small Steps
Taking on too much is a leading cause failure. In fact, it’s one of the biggest reason why people seem to derail when it comes to their New Year’s Resolution.Radically altering your normal behavior is practically setting yourself up for failure. If you start out drastically cutting calories or overworking yourself at the gym, you are altering your normal behavior way too much. It will make you resolution 10x harder to achieve.
Instead, start off by cutting a few calories off your day and going five minutes longer at the gym. Taking small consistent steps will to help you improve, and it will put you on the path to successfully achieving the change you hope the New Year brings.
