7 Tips for Sticking with Your New Year’s Resolutions
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New Year’s is often a time for self-reflection, where many of us begin to take stock of our lives. And while, of course, goals can be set at any point of the year, a lot of people find this reflection as the kickstart needed to switch up their lives. Whether it’s the realization that they haven’t eaten the best during the year, or moved their bodies as much as they may have liked. It could be that they haven’t seen as much of the world as they may have wanted to or don’t speak as many languages as they would like. Whatever your goals are, New Year’s can be a time when we really think about it.
Also read: 4 Easy Ways to Prioritize Self-love
Now, of course, setting goals and accomplishing them are two different things. In fact, people often joke that New Year’s resolutions don’t stick at all. The reality is that embarking on a huge change in your life is difficult, and while people may think the start of a new year means an entirely new them altogether, it’s simply not the case. Today we’re going to go over some tips for goal setting and resolutions that are done so in a sustainable way.
7 Tips for Sticking with Your New Year’s Resolutions
1. Examine your needs
When we look at setting New Year’s Resolutions, the first step is to really examine your life, as well as your current wants and needs. Sometimes, when we’re busy with life it can be difficult to stop and reflect on where we are, what we’re doing, and where we want to go.
2. Create SMART goals
Creating SMART goals is one of the best ways to make sure you’re successful with your resolutions. SMART is an acronym for goals that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and follow a timeline. The idea is that these parameters allow you to set yourself and your goals up for success. Define your goal, determine how you’ll track its success, be honest with yourself if you can achieve it, determine if accomplishing it is realistic, and what sort of timeframe are you wanting to do this in.
3. Break it up
While the new year is a great time to focus on our goals and take stock of our lives, we don’t need to accomplish every last thing immediately. Breaking up your goals into smaller, easier-to-process pieces not only makes it more manageable, but it often gives us momentum to try something more. For example, if you want to go back to school, instead of looking at it as needing to jump in full-time immediately, you can always try taking one course to start and see how it goes.
4. Reevaluate your goals as you go along
Check-in with yourself regularly to reevaluate what’s working and what needs to be adjusted. If you need to pivot in a different direction, that’s totally okay. Be kind and honest with yourself and your needs.
5. Build a team around you
It’s important to have a strong support system of people you trust around you to help you when your journey gets tough. These people could be your family, friends, community members, or even an accountability buddy on the same journey as you. Surrounding yourself with supportive people can help boost your confidence which will help aid you in achieving your goals.
6. Do not get discouraged
Things take time, plain and simple. If things take longer then intended, or go off course for a bit, or get a little tough here and there, stay focused and do not get discouraged. The most significant and influential outcomes often take the most amount of work, so stick with it and believe in yourself.
7. Celebrate every win
A win is a win, no matter how big or how small. Cheer for yourself at every stage along the way. This can also help momentum, remember why you wanted to start, celebrate with your support system and keep going. You are worth all of the goals you have for yourself.