SELF-HELP TIPS & TRICKS
Alright, time for some honesty… It’s February 3rd. Have you been sticking to your New Year’s Resolution or have you fallen off the wagon? Let me be clear, it’s okay if you have. 2020 was a ROUGH year and it feels like it never really ended. I actually have a friend who is going by “pandemic years” and isn’t celebrating a new year until March (when things are supposed to have gotten better, as the vaccine rolls out). That being said, maybe you can follow his timeline and get a fresh start in the next month or two. Here are some tips for getting that resolution to stick this time!
9 Tricks for Sticking to a New Year’s Resolution
1. Make your resolution specific and realistic.
The more specific you can be, the better. Blanket statements and generalizations make it hard to stick to something.
2. Track it!
Monthly Habit Tracker in Cherish by Design’s Customizable Bullet Journal
Keep a note in your phone, a list on your desk, or dedicate a space in your physical planner to tick off boxes so you can see when you get something done!
3. Opt for a month-to-month resolution instead
I chose to do this for 2020 and boy am I glad I did! I didn’t feel like my big new year’s resolution plans were derailed when covid hit. I set a different “resolution” or positive life change for each month. For example, one month my resolution was to drink a glass of water first thing every morning. Another one was to meditate for 2 minutes a day. I planned to add on each positive change each month in the hopes that by December I would have a whole slew of new positive habits. That part didn’t happen but I still had one good thing to focus on each month which helped me actually stick to it. I had less to focus on and when the world turned upside down, I was able to adjust my monthly “resolutions” appropriately.
4. Believe you can do it.
Create a mantra about your resolution and repeat it to yourself as often as possible. What you say, you believe. What you believe, you can create. As looney as it may sound to some people, mantras and meditating on things are more powerful than you think.
5. Make it a positive resolution.
Create more good instead of taking away the bad. For example, rather than cutting out junk food, add healthier food into your diet! Come from a place of growth and abundance rather than scarcity. It is proven that people are more likely to stick with a change with a positive mentality.
6. Add your resolution to something you already do.
Say you want to start meditating and you already have coffee every morning. You don’t have to find new time in your day to add to your already-busy schedule. Simply add your meditation to your coffee time. Either before or after your coffee, take a few minutes to do your meditation. Taking on a new task to something you already do regularly makes it that much more likely to stick.
7. Give yourself some grace (and credit).
Go easy on yourself and take stock of the small steps along the way towards achieving or successfully keeping your resolution. If your goal is to workout 5 times a week and right now you only workout twice a week, reward yourself even if you only make it three times a week to start. Everyone starts somewhere and any progress you make along the way to your goal is great!
8. Ask yourself why.
Remind yourself why you have chosen this resolution. Ask why you want to achieve this. Are you aiming to be healthier? Are you aiming to be happier? Or if you are recycling a goal, consider why it may not have worked the first time. Was it simply unachievable? Maybe you aimed too high to think you could run a 5-minute mile after not running for years. Or maybe there underlying factors that derailed you? Maybe there’s something deeper going on that needs some reflection.
9. Consider what hobbies or habits came out of your quarantine time during 2020.
Is there anything you spent your time doing that you can continue into 2021? Maybe you read more often or checked in with friends on a more regular basis. Those are things worth keeping around. (Or conversely, maybe you developed some bad habits that should get chucked out ASAP).
Twelve months is a long time (as we all learned the hard way last year). So much can happen in a year. It’s a long time to try to keep up with goals and promises. But that also means there’s also so much opportunity in 365 days (or 331 as of today). Opportunities to succeed and challenge ourselves. Opportunities to fail and try again. I hope some of these tips for keeping a New Year’s Resolution help you stick to it (and give yourself a little grace when you don’t).
Any other ideas for how to stay on track with a goal?
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