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How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

How many New Year’s resolutions have you kept in your life? Do you know anyone who has actually stuck to their resolution through the whole twelve months? For how many months have you kept a resolution before you’ve quit? It has been my experience that almost everyone I have ever heard make a New Year’s resolution will only hold that pledge for a small percentage of the year.

I always thought the idea behind resolutions were to start a strict new habit or regimen that will eventually become part of the rest of our lives. Resolutions should be a sign that people are taking charge of their lives by trying to improve themselves, one problem at a time, one year at a time. Unfortunately, I am quickly reminded that most people only carry the desire to change, but rarely put in the effort to stick to any life-changing alterations. Why is this?

Some of the most common resolutions are losing weight, spending more time with family, or quitting some habit like smoking or drinking. Obviously, these all have good intentions of improving oneself to be a better person either physically or personally. But simply promising yourself to get into a good habit will not alter your life unless you actually take steps to ensure your change.

Daily rituals of your resolution are probably the best ways to stick to any kind of life alteration. I would suggest using some form of a daily calendar to keep yourself aware of your changes. If you are trying to lose weight, find a daily calendar on cooking healthy, or if you want to learn a new language find a word-a-day calendar in that new tongue, or find some form of inspirational calendar to remind you to be nicer to yourself or others. You can even try placing sticky notes around your home in strategic places to remind yourself of your resolution. Or set up reminders on your phone or on an Outlook calendar.

Make your resolutions important to yourself. It may be helpful to actually write a list of all the reasons why you want to start this resolution. Those that are trying to improve their health will probably have an easier list to make, but even resolutions that involve learning a new skill or taking up a new hobby should have some importance to you, so be sure to list those reasons.

Give yourself a goal to reach part way through the year. Maybe you want to lose so many pounds by March, or be able to speak simple sentences in Italian by April. Reaching your goals should encourage you to stick with your plan through the rest of the year. And if for some reason you do not reach your goal, you should feel encouraged to try that much harder with your resolution in the coming months and create new goals.

Plan rewards for yourself for reaching your goals. Maybe plan a trip France to practice your new-learned French, or buy yourself some new clothes after losing 20 pounds. You should congratulate yourself for sticking to your resolution and give yourself incentives to keeping up your new habit or skill. Make sure your reward is something that you control, though. Your resolution is for yourself, so your reward should be from yourself, as well.

And make realistic resolutions. If you cannot find realistic ways to follow through with your resolution, then you are probably dooming yourself for discouragement and failure.

Last but not least, use at least two of these tips, if not more, to encourage yourself to stick to that resolution. One reminder or reason is rarely enough for anyone.

In short, it often seems that people do not change unless they have to. Sometimes they need an extra push to fulfill an obligation to others or themselves. Hopefully, if you have kept up your resolution successfully through the year, you will be able to carry your newfound habit through the rest of your life.

Does anyone have any other suggestions to sticking to their New Year’s resolutions?