It is already past New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day, we all know that. But New Year’s resolutions are hard, a lot harder than one would think. They can be difficult to come up with and near impossible to even stick with. In fact, trying to come up with them can make you want to never think about them again. I know that feeling. I have never once stuck with my new year’s resolutions, I have never even written them down or remembered them past New Year’s Day. But, it is now already the New Year and that pressure is gone. Who needs New Year’s resolutions when you can just have regular resolutions? So, in an effort to help myself and you all who might be a bit behind, here are some tips to make New Year’s resolutions a bit more attainable, now that it is already the new year.
A friend had this great idea to pick a word or idea for the year, and then try to think of that word daily and allow it to influence your life. This would be easier than setting actual goals and would be a good bridge between doing nothing and setting resolutions. Your word could be “kind” and you could just focus on being kinder for that year and encourage kindness.
Specificity is essential. If you want to eat healthier, what does that mean? You won’t be able to achieve your goal unless you can define it. It would be better to think about eating at least one fruit every day.
So many resolutions are to “reduce stress”, “find a significant other” or “make more money”. These may not be attainable, so you are setting yourself up for failure. If you think a resolution seems abstract or not controllable, start to plan out how you would achieve that goal and see if it would be possible before you even start.
Set up resolutions that you have some hope of achieving. If you are someone who has no drive to learn a new language, don’t set a resolution to learn a new language just because you think it would be cool. This is not a realistic resolution, and will probably end up being discarded, angrily.
Writing down your goals allows you to remember them, and keep track of how you are doing. This gives you a visual of the new year and will provide you with more of an incentive to try and keep up with your resolutions.
Don’t pick a million goals and write them all down. You will not achieve all of them, and will probably not even achieve one, because there are just too many to think about. You don’t want to be overwhelmed and then feel like a failure at the end of the year because your expectations were far too high in the beginning.
There are plenty of websites that give resolution ideas, do some research to pick ones that are right for you. Or, talk to friends about resolutions and make plans together. Expanding your options will make your resolutions easier to achieve.
Planning your goals will allow you to see how you will achieve them. Set milestones to keep yourself going and check in with yourself to see you how you are doing.
Some resolutions and goals are not going to work, try to not beat yourself up over it. If your resolution is not working, it is never too late to set a new and more attainable goal, these resolutions are not set in stone. Allow them to grow with you and they will truly be beneficial.
Let us know some of your resolutions and goals down below!
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