So New Year’s is finally upon us, and with it comes the inevitable doom of having to make resolutions.
Personally, I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions for two reasons. Firstly, I don’t think we should have to wait for the year to change to start changing ourselves, but rather change when life calls for one. I personally strive to always be trying to change myself. Secondly, it’s a well known fact that people never follow through with their resolutions.
But if you have made resolutions this year that you are determined to achieve, this might be able to help you out.
I find that the biggest reason people give up on their resolutions is that they tend to be really broad, general, and open ended. They have good intent, but it’s hard to figure out where to start.
This generally leads to constantly trying to justify that you are reaching your goal. Ex. “I ate a piece of celery today after my steak. I’m definitely working towards eating healthier.” Or “I went and got a gym membership today. This will surely be a great motivator to work out more!”
And at the end of the year, you’ll probably look back at a fridge full of uneaten celery, and an unused gym membership thinking “crap”
So how do we avoid this? We set smaller goals. Smaller goals are more focused, they’re easier to work on, and therefore, easier to achieve. So for example, instead of saying “I’m gonna be more active”, you could say “I’m going to go biking every two weeks”, and after a couple months, maybe change it to every week. Instead of saying “I’m going to be more time efficient”, you could say “Instead of staring at the ceiling for 5 minutes when my alarm rings, I’m going to get up as soon as I hear it.” or “I’m going to reduce the time I spend checking social media from 10 minutes to 5.” Instead of saying “I’m going to read a lot more”, you could say “I’m going to spend 45 minutes a week reading” or “I’m going to read one book a month.”
By setting smaller, short term, and more specific goals, it’s actually more effective towards reaching the end goal, because you get to work in little parts. Also, it’s a lot less daunting to work in a little goal than the New Year’s resolutions we usually set.
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Another way to motivate yourself is to have constant reminders of your goal. Set it as your lock screen. Put a sticky up in your room. You can even set one of your passwords to be your goal. The constant reminders are great for a reminder, and if need be, a great way to guilt trip yourself into at least giving your goals a shot.
Also, keep in mind that New Year’s isn’t the only time for self improvement. It’s always possible to make yourself a better person!
So happy New Year, and good luck on your resolutions!
