Don’t Give Up on your New Year Resolutions

Three, Two, One…Happy New Year! It’s been a month since the beginning of a New Year and a new decade. How many resolutions did you make? How many did you break?

A couple of years ago, I stopped making resolutions for the beginning of each year. I started making them because I wanted to change tomorrow; not in six weeks, six months, or 10 months (depending on what months of the year). It still didn’t work for me. What I needed to do and still am working on is stopping procrastination, stopping the fear of failure, and being smart about what I want to do better.

Set up ourselves for Failure

January 17 is known as “Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day”. It doesn’t have to be. Because guess what? Every day is a new day to start your resolutions over again. A January 6 article in Forbes noted that the most common resolutions are to lose weight, exercise more, less critical of others, spend more time with family, and give more to charity.  

People overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years

Bill Gates

Did you know that 80% of people who made resolutions failed to keep them by the end of the year or even by February? It goes back to why we don’t succeed in making resolutions. Some common reasons for failure:

1. Goals are too general – “I’m going to lose weight this year.”
2. Being overwhelmed – “This year, I’m going to lose weight, go to the gym, clean every room in my house, make healthy dinners every night for my family, etc., etc., etc.”
3. Feeling discouraged – “Even if I try, there is really no way I’m going to succeed.”
4. Just not ready to make that change in life – “I have to be completely confident that I am going to succeed.”
5. Not your goals – “I should do this goal because it’s what my friends or some celebrity said to do.”

Set up ourselves for Success

Changing your habit is not as easy as just telling yourself that “today I will be better at going to the gym”. Your resolutions need to be SMART.

• Specific – Well defined and clear
• Measurable – specific criteria with measurable progress toward accomplishing your goal
• Achievable – goals that are not impossible for you to achieve
• Realistic – goals that are relevant and mean something to your life
• Timely – a clearly defined timeline with a start and a target date.

When writing a SMART goal act like a reporter. As the five “W” questions of – Who? What? When? and Why?

For more information on SMART goal writing see this informative blog post from Tony Robbins.

Get past the “Ditch” Your Resolution Date

Another way of looking at the goal is to think of it as a “problem” that needs solving. We often expect our kids to follow the rules we give them because it makes them better people. However, we don’t put the same effort into ourselves.

After you have done the work the next part is making them stick! A couple of ideas are:

1. Write them down in a calendar or planner. Look at your calendar and mark your progress.
2. Have an accountability partner. A friend who meets you at the gym or at the corner to go for a walk will definitely let you know if you miss a “date”.
3. Tell the “world” by announcing your resolution on social media; Facebook, Twitter, Snap-chat, YouTube, etc.
4. Forget your past. Just because you failed yesterday does not mean you won’t succeed today or tomorrow. A study showed that on average, people slip up about 14 times before being successful. Forgive yourself when you mess up and start again.
5. Work on your goals when you are ready. It doesn’t have to start on January 1^st. You just need to be committed.

Deciding to make a new year’s resolution is easy. What is difficult is keeping them. That can change. A little planning, a little motivation, and a little love for yourself can go a long way. Remember that we are a community of family and friends that are there for each other to rely on and talk to when we have difficulties. So, be like Nike and “Just do It” (again and again and again).

Happy New Day!