How To Make New Year’s Resolutions That Stick
How To Make New Year’s Resolutions That Stick
Related: 5 Easy Ways to Radically Improve Your Health
As we count down from ten to the New Year, a lot of us find ourselves thinking of how the next year will be different. It could be anything, such as working out every week, eating healthy, stop procrastinating, or anything else. Unfortunately, New Year’s resolutions have gotten a bad rep because, well, they just don’t stick.
It’s hard to keep them up. Sure we might follow through for a month, but 6 months or a year later, chances are these habits are not still a part of our routine.
While this information may deter you from creating a new year’s resolution, there are a lot of benefits to New Year’s resolutions as well as many tactics you can use to make them stick.
What Are New Year’s Resolutions
First, let’s break down what New Year’s resolutions even are.
You can think of a new year’s resolution similar to a goal. However, there is one main difference.
A goal is typically focused on some sort of result, such as losing weight. A New Year’s resolution, on the other hand, focuses on some sort of action or habit. For example, a New Year’s resolution might be to work out each week.
The goal and New Year’s resolution mentioned above may lead to the same thing: consistently working out that causes weight loss. Nonetheless, they cause us to have very different attitudes towards them. The goal is motivating since we know what we are working towards, but the resolution allows us to focus more on the action it takes to get to where we want to be.
How Can New Year’s Resolutions Actually Help You
Related: 30 Simple Ways to Live a Healthier Life
So why would you make a resolution? Why not just make a goal?
Goals are incredible to have and bring amazing results if the effort is put forth. The key to any goal is the effort put towards it.
Any goal can be achieved with the right, consistent action taken. Unfortunately, sometimes it can be hard to determine what that action should be.
Since, as we discussed earlier, a New Year’s resolution is focused on this action, it gives you a clear path of what you need to do/who you want to become.
The other reason New Year’s resolutions work so well is that they are created at the start of something new. It is always easier to start a new habit when there is something new, such as a day, week, month, or even better, year!
Why Do New Year’s Resolutions Not Stick?
The answer is simple, it is hard to build a habit.
As our motivation to maintain our new habit fades, we allow ourselves to skip a day. This leads to two days, which leads to two weeks, two months, and so on.
How To Make A Good New Year’s Resolutions
Related: 6 Breathing Techniques for Energy and Relaxation
As I mentioned before, a New Year’s resolution typically revolves around an action or habit, rather than a goal.
When you make your New Year’s resolution, think about who you want to be.
For example, a lot of people make resolutions to go to the gym. Rather than saying “I want to go to the gym each week,” say something along the lines of “I am someone who goes to the gym,” or “I love the gym.”
This is the first step in making a New Year’s resolution that sticks.
Rather than saying you want to do something, tell yourself you are the person that does that. Start to identify as that type of person.
How To Make Your New Year’s Resolution Stick
Success with anything requires consistency. The good news is that it is extremely easy to do any New Year’s resolution. The bad news is that it is just as easy to not do it.
In order to make anything stick, we must be consistent.
Identifying as the type of person who has that habit is a great way to start. When we identify as someone who does something, we will not want to let ourselves, or our reputation, down.
This may sound odd but think about it. Are you a morning person? If not, and you were to wake up early, do you think you’d ever enjoy it?
How you view yourself has a huge impact on your actions and behavior.
Another great way to keep your new habit is to change your environment to support that habit.
To continue with the example of working out each week, you could set up workout clothes by your bed for the next morning or put a workout bag right next to the door.
There are many ways you can encourage yourself to stick with a habit.
One more way might be to use rewards and consequences. Such as not getting your morning Starbucks until after you’ve gone to the gym and if you don’t go to the gym, you cannot watch any tv for a week.
Alternatively, you could schedule in your habit. Physically write it down into a calendar or put a due date to it.
If we are given a project from work or school, we take its deadline seriously. You might procrastinate, sure, but you get it done by the due date.
Keep the same dedication to your own goals and habits. Prioritize your new year’s resolutions and give them the same effort you might give a new project at work.
At the end of the day, whether a new year’s resolution sticks is completely up to you. You’ve got this, I believe in you!
38 Comments
Megan
This is a great reminder to change your mindset and focus on the positivies!
Nathalia
Exactly!!
Ally
Writing down my goals or building a vision board are my go to’s for creating New Year Resolutions 🙂
Nathalia
I really enjoy building vision boards and will be having a session very soon.
Hannah
These are great tips! Another thing that could go along with changing your perspective is having an accountability partner. This can be helpful for both of the parties involved.
Nathalia
Completely agree. The people you surround yourself with make a huge impact.
Emily
“Change your environment to support your new habit” that is so powerful! Thank you for sharing!
Nathalia
This one is super powerful and ties into the people you surround yourself with.
Fabiana
I really appreciated your post and your point of view!!!
I set to work to immediately identify my resolutions for the coming year !
Nathalia
That is so great! I really loved Grace’s tips.
Karen Chen
This is a really helpful post! My plan for this New Year’s resolutions is to definitely make less (having too many makes it super hard to focus on) and make those few a priority in life!
Nathalia
LOVE this!! I seriously need to do the same.
Stephanie
I’m all for setting small achievable goals based on my values. One of mine for this year is getting back on a better sleep schedule so I have energy to plah with my kids!
Nathalia
Ooohhh, that’s a great one! I’m working (starting a few days ago) to limit any caffeine consumption after 10 am. It helps with your natural sleep cycle.
Val
Really enjoyed your post! It makes me think how will I plan my resolutions differently this year! I’ll start by thinking about the new habits I want to have such as excercising daily! This was very useful!
Nathalia
Love hearing about your exercise goal! I’ll be having a goal-setting session very soon.
Katy Malkin
Love this. Consistency is key in so many areas of life!
Nathalia
Completely agree!
Maressa
I love the idea about rewarding yourself with Starbucks after going to the gym! That way we work towards something and celebrating with a treat or doing something you love!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Nathalia
Love that tip! It can help to have a bit of motivation.
Anitha
I am not a very good fan of new years resolutions but the past year, dealing with a pandemic has thought me the importance of putting my life in the right perspective. I am definitely going to make some serious resolutions this coming new year and plan on keeping them too. This article comes in handy
Nathalia
That is so great to hear, Anitha! I find that writing SMART goals can help.
astrid
i write down all my goals,and since i live with my significant other,we also like to write our shared goals and every year,we make a vision board!
Nathalia
It’s so great that you do this with your partner! What a great way for both of you to get clear and on the same path.
Tara
Great ideas! Will definitely be trying out the concept of saying “I am” instead of “I should”
Nathalia
Such a powerful practice!
Cati
What a great post. Thank you so much, I really needed these tips. I suck at keeping my new years resolutions!
Nathalia
They can be really hard to stick with, but Grace’s tips here should help 😉
Isabel
Really well summarised, Nathalia.
Well done.
Nathalia
Glad you enjoyed Grace’s post
Porshaa || Lifetimeinflux
Thank you for this post. New years resolutions are critical and especially when you stick to them. These points you have made are very going. I will defo be sharing this post.
Zsamazing Life
This post reminds me to start writing my goals and resolutions for 2021. Will try the tips that you’ve shared. Thanks for this blog.
Nathalia
So glad you found Grace’s tips helpful!
Nathalia
Happy to hear it, Porshaa!
Kristen Brody
I used to be anti-new years resolutions… because I always break them. Thank you for all the tips, reading this has encouraged me to set some goals for this year!
Nathalia
That’s so great to hear! Glad that you found Amy’s post inspiring!
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Nathalia
Excellent follow-up!