How To Stick To Your New Year’s Resolution

So we’re a few days into the New Year, we’ve got our best intentions, positive thoughts and new goals right at the forefront of our minds and we feel so ready to achieve and succeed, and make up for lost time in 2020.

What happens when we’re a few weeks down the line (STILL in January), the cold weather is starting to get to us, we aren’t seeing results yet and we start to wonder if it was worth making those promises to ourselves at the start of the year in the first place?

This is so typical, and you are certainly not alone when you get to the end of January and you’ve already fallen off the wagon, or you’ve not made any notable progress with reaching your goals.

5 New Year’s Resolution Tips

Here are a few tips we’d like to share with you to help you get through January (and the rest of the year!) and keep those resolutions, whatever they may be!

1. Make your resolution realistic.

Before we get into maintaining your goals, let’s take a look at how viable they really are.

A lot of the time, the goals we set ourselves are so far out of our reach that we don’t leave ourselves a conceivable path to take in order to achieve them.

Yes, you can create the most amazing resolutions, and make some huge changes for yourself if that’s what you want, but don’t set yourself up for failure. Sometimes the big things take time, so set yourself smaller, more manageable goals to reach the big one when it’s time!

2. Hold yourself accountable.

Sometimes when we set resolutions, no matter how big or small, we just make a little promise to ourselves, and the positivity and drive behind those promises can slowly ebb away, and that’s normal.

What you need to do is take responsibility for your goals and tell someone else about it. Check in with someone so you can report your progress, have someone to celebrate with when you hit milestones and someone to support you when you’re struggling with your resolution.

This will also help keep you on track because talking about it makes your goal feel like it’s set in stone and something you’ll actively work towards to achieve.

3. Keep track of your progress.

It’s so important to keep your resolution in mind throughout the year. This is where a lot of people fail to stick to their plans, purely because they forgot they made those promises to themselves. Life gets in the way and suddenly we’re in August and you definitely didn’t achieve what you’d planned so far.

So a great tip is to keep track. You can use a calendar, a journal, the notes app on your phone, anything you like!

You can do this monthly, or weekly, depending on the resolution you’re keeping. And a great way to help you stick to this is to set reminders on your phone. (Trust me, it helps!)

If you’re working towards an ideal size or weight, make notes of your progress to keep you motivated. If you’ve decided to finally go for that promotion this year, keep a record of all the steps you’ve taken and the work you’ve done so far to make sure you’re ready for it. If your resolution is to read more, keep a list of how many pages you read this week.

This is an awesome way to stay motivated and it’s something you can look on throughout the year and be proud of each step you have achieved.

4. Don’t give up at the first stumble.

You made this resolution for a good reason, right? So you owe it to yourself to stick at it. Don’t let any hiccups throw you off and ruin what would be an incredible achievement for yourself.

Say your resolution is to start running and your goal is to eventually be able to run 5K without stopping. You thought you were doing really well, but one time you go out for a run and you really struggle, you did way worse than on your run a few days ago.

I’m sure this would be disappointing, and your confidence and motivation may take a hit. But I know you have the strength to learn from the bad run and maybe take a look at your form, your hydration levels, the shoes you were wearing, what you had to eat that day, and learn from it. Use that bad run to make the next one better.

Humans have off-days, and life happens. It’s not always going to be easy to stick to the plans you make for yourself. But get back on the horse and prove to yourself you can do it.

Don’t let small setbacks hold you back for good. You deserve more than that.

5. Remember the reason you set your resolution.

When you set your resolution at the beginning of the year, there’s always a reason behind it. You want to be healthier, you want more time for your family, you want to be more mindful and look after yourself.

Whatever the resolution, and whatever the reason behind it, it is valid. And it will stay valid no matter what month we are in, no matter how many bumps in the road, no matter what anyone else thinks about your goals. Do it for you.

2020 dealt us all a life-altering year, and we all deserve the chance to make better decisions, healthy changes, and positive moves to ensure that this year is better than the last. It doesn’t have to be a big change, your resolution might be to keep the same morning routine you had last year, it can be that small. Whatever your goals for 2021 may be, I hope these tips help!

Happy New Year!