In speaking with a few people over the past year who have
really struggled to stick with and achieve New Year’s resolutions I’ve learned
some strategizes that work for even the most frustrated, cynical, and
discouraged among us. I strongly believe
that following at least one of these two strategizes will help us all be
successful this year.
#1 One at a Time
One reason why I believe many of us get so frustrated with
New Year’s resolutions is because we try and accomplish too many all at
once. Changing and forming habits is
hard—even just one of them! So if we try
to simultaneously change many habits it can be overwhelming and nearly
impossible. So that is tip number one,
just start with one. Pick one New Year’s
resolution we’d like to accomplish and focus on it, work on it, and don’t get
discouraged. If we forget for a day or
two, or struggle in January, or try but do not see the progress we want to see
right away, don’t get discouraged. We
have the time to get it right, and accomplish one. Accomplishing and focusing our efforts on
just one resolution for the year can help us be a huge success because one is
so much better than none.
For those of us who see success after a month a two on
our one resolution, we can choose to add another. For example, if our one resolution is to not
eat sweets and we’ve been pretty successful for all of January, we could then add
a second resolution and see if we can’t begin to work on both. If we continue successful with both we can
then add another after another successful month or two. This incremental increase to resolutions is a
great way to establish new habits, and be successful. My only caution is don’t step ahead too soon. Allow yourself to be successful for at least
a few weeks with one resolution before adding another one. I’ve learned that this strategy has worked
very well for many now successful “New Year resolution accomplishers.”
#2 A Day at a Time
The second tip is to breakdown our resolutions in to smaller
time frames and reward ourselves when we have a good day or week. Too often we view our resolutions in an “entire
year” time frame and give up once we notice at the end of January that we’ve
barely begun. Instead, we need to
measure our success in smaller chunks. I
recommend weekly or perhaps even daily.
If we can check ourselves at the end of each week or each day and evaluate
how we’ve done, it will help us to accomplish our goals. When we shorten our time frame we can also allow
ourselves to have a bad day or two or week or two because we have a chance to
refocus and be successful for a day or two or week or two. And when we do have a good day or two or week
or two, we need to reward ourselves.
So for example, let’s says we want to exercise each day for
30 minutes. Using this strategy we might
say my goal this week is to exercise for 30 minutes 5 out of 7 days, that’s
all. Viewing our goal this way seems so
much more manageable than, I want to exercise 30 minutes every day for this
entire year. For someone who is not
currently exercising very often, this entire year time frame will seem like an
impossible task. But committing
ourselves to do it just for one week or even one day seems so much more
manageable and doable. Then if we do exercise
for the 5 out of 7 days we need to reward ourselves. As we take our resolutions week by week or
even day by day (My goal is to exercise 30 minutes just this one day), we can begin
to see how our resolutions can be accomplished.
Taking our resolutions a day or a week at a time will help us avoid discouragement
and despair and help us achieve our goals.
I feel strongly that using at least one if not both of these
strategies will help us achieve our resolutions this year and make us better
people. Let’s have a great year by
accomplishing at least one resolution, in smaller time frames. I know we can! Happy New Year!!!
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