Struggle with keeping your new year’s resolutions? Read these 7 tips and work towards a ‘new year, new you’…
There are 7 steps for sticking with your new year’s resolutions:
- Set goals that motivate you
- Choose wisely
- Make them SMART
- Plan your time
- Stay accountable
- Take the pressure off
- Get support
Let’s take a closer look at how you can make sure you keep your goals this year.
1. Setting your new year’s resolutions
The key to setting successful new year’s resolutions is picking ones that motivate you. A lot of people say I want to be fitter, healthier, to learn these new skills, to travel more etc.
But your new year’s resolutions need to mean something to you. Think about what is actually important to you, and what will make a positive difference to your life. Having a clear answer to ‘why am I doing this?’ will help you visualise your goal!
2. The pitfalls of setting high expectations
Choose your new year’s resolutions wisely. You may have many things you want to achieve, but you don’t have to do them all.
Your new resolutions need to become habits, and too many goals becomes overwhelming. It creates a lot of work, and it’s one of the most common mistakes.
Pick one or two things you want to focus on. If you think you’re doing well with them, you can add a new one to the list later on in the year.
3. How to make SMART goals
Making SMART goals will help you avoid unachievable new year’s resolutions. SMART means they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. You can read about how to make these in more detail here.
For example, your goal might be to ‘read more educational books’, but what does that really mean? To make it more specific, you could ‘read for 10 minutes each evening before bed’, and now you’ve set yourself a realistic expectation you can stick to.
4. Building habits into your life
Pick times each day, week or month where you’ll actively work towards your goal, and make it non negotiable (which means you have to make time for it). For example, it’s easy enough to say ‘I’ll practise the piano twice a week’ and it’s also just as easy to put it off and do no practice at all.
Feeling like you’re making no progress with your goals can knock your self belief and affect your motivation. Remember that little, consistent steps in the right direction mean more than big steps that overwhelm you and ultimately get you nowhere.
5. Tracking your progress
Making a SMART goal will help you track your new year’s resolutions. Monitoring your progress will help you see if something isn’t working, and allow you to adapt and change.
You can also get others involved with your new year’s resolutions to stay accountable. For example, if your goal is to get fitter, grab a gym buddy or someone you can go on walks with.
6. Don’t pressure yourself
Give it time – you won’t achieve all your goals overnight. It’ll take time to build habits into your life – they don’t happen instantly, or we’d all be achieving our resolutions by the end of the first week.
You might have seen people on social media talk about having a certain number of weeks left to achieve your goal and how to quickly cram it in. The reality is that you have as much time as you want – one year isn’t your time limit.
If you haven’t achieved your end goal by the next new year, remember the most important thing is that you’ve built some good habits and you’re on your way towards achieving it.
If you face a setback, don’t be harsh on yourself. Look at what you’ve already achieved, find time to pick your habits back up, and try again.
7. Getting support
Building new habits and reaching goals is a journey, and for some it takes longer than others. If you’ve got a big goal you’re working towards such as quitting smoking, building a business, or in some way turning over a new leaf, there is help available out there.
As an example of a common new year’s resolution, the NHS has a Quit Smoking app that lets you track your progress and access support resources.
If you know you’ve got a difficult road ahead due to the nature of your resolution, and you think you’ll need support to keep on track, search for a support service that can help.
