How to make your New Year's resolutions stick

New Year = New Me, right? With 2022 around the corner, it's safe to say many of us (including myself) are brain-storming goals for the New Year. This automatic awareness we have deep in our bones that sets in after Christmas is truly a feeling we can't shake -- every year we say the same thing to ourselves, "how did this year go by so fast?" Let's be honest, New Years resolutions are like annual chores we know we should complete, it would most definitely be good for us, but many of the typical resolutions we know and love to add to our list statistically become abandoned within the first few months of the New Year. So why are we doing the same thing again and again each year and expecting a different result?

Let me start off with saying, I think New Years resolutions are GREAT, it motivates us for the coming year and makes us feel like we can have a fresh start. The only problem with these goals? We don't usually achieve many of them, if any at all. Studies have found only 12% of people who make New Year's resolutions are actually successful in completing their goals, which leaves the other 88% of us.. At least we're in it together right! Well it doesn't have to be that way for another year, because these proven tips will help shift your mindset so you can learn how to choose sustainable resolutions that are actually achievable.   

Proven strategies that can actually help you stick to your goals

Plan plan plan planning out your goals is essential to the success of them. With that being said don't rush and pick a goal, spend time prioritizing what you need to do vs what you want to do and go from there. Once you decide on the goal, plan out why you want to achieve it, which steps you will take to get it done, and most importantly how you will stay on track.

Be choosy with your resolutions there's nothing wrong with wanting to accomplish plenty of goals, but the reality is we can't do it all at once. So choose your goals wisely, starting from the highest priority. The most effective way to achieve this is by selecting one goal at a time, this would typically be your highest priority goal and focus all of your energy on it until it's completed then go down the list.

Make your goal specific when choosing a goal make sure it's concrete and realistic, unlike the ordinary goals we usually set such as: losing weight, eating healthier, or saving more money this year. Specifying your goals allows you to plan how you're going to achieve it, which can have higher success vs an ambiguous goal. For example your goal this year is to lose weight, instead of writing down "lose weight" explain how much weight you want to lose (be realistic), give a timeline when you want to lose the weight by and how much you should lose on a monthly basis to achieve it, then of course write out what you will do to lose the weight, and add this routine into your weekly schedule!

Slow and steady wins the race be mindful that good things take time, so don't take on too much all at once with your goal(s), this is actually the main reason why so many resolutions fail. Start with small steps each day to help you reach that big goal in the future.

Don't repeat the past do you know the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over, and over again expecting a different result. Well, remember that when you're deciding on goals. If you're guilty of repeatedly choosing the same goals that fail, it can be helpful to reimagine how you can make it successful, take a different approach and try to identify what has prevented you from keeping these resolutions in the previous years.        

Habits can be hard to break good things take time and so can bad things, remember that habits you're trying to change most likely developed over years. Think about this: if your habit took all this time to create, it will probably take time to correct, too. So have an open-mind with breaking these habits, and remain patient in knowing it may take longer than you hope, but it's a process. It might become tough at times, but remaining strong and hopeful will help you make the change to develop new habits you can improve on for the rest of your life -- it's not a race to finish!   

"Sometimes, the difference between success and failure is simply choosing the right goal and the process you use to go about achieving it" 

-- Verywell Mind