Staff Writer
"New year, new me" seems to be the only thing you hear around this time of year, but as we all know keeping our new years resolution is very difficult. In fact only 8% of people stick to their resolution, and the other 92% abandon them after just one week. The top 10 most common new years resolutions are: lose weight, quit smoking, learn something new, eat healthier, save money, spend more time with family, travel to new places, be less stressed, volunteer more, and drink less.
Keeping your resolution is very challenging so here are 10 steps to make your resolution last this year:
1.) Set small baby steps. People who make little baby steps toward their goal tend to have more success achieving their goal rather than those who look at the big picture. When you make little small goals that add up to your big goal it is much easier to focus on just that time being rather than looking at the whole year. It makes your resolution look a lot less challenging and a lot more achievable.
2.) Don't look at your resolution as a punishment. If you view your resolution as a chore chances are you are not going to find yourself very happy. If you are going about your resolution like it's torture than just give up, you have to look at it knowing you're getting better as a person. And most importantly only focus on the things you have control over. If you want to save more money then be more careful about how and where you're spending it, and don't look at what you have actually saved.
3.) Make time for your resolution. If you can't find time into your schedule for your goal then you can't achieve it. Now this is easier for people who's resolution is part of your daily life like be nicer because that does not involve separate time. But for people who let's say are going to go to the gym more than fitting it into your schedule as if it were as important as practice or doing homework is key to achieving your goal.
4.) It's more fun with a partner. Going about your resolution by yourself may seem hard and you're going to want to quit, so getting a partner can really help. Let's say you are working out more, whenever you want to stop your friend can help you keep going. Or if you are not doing something together than you can challenge each other. Let's say you are trying to eat better you could keep track of everything you ate and compare to your friend and see who ate better.
5.) Pound it into your brain. People who have an idea in their head but go about their resolution every once in awhile are not achieving anything. You have to wake up every morning and plan what you are going to accomplish. If you are trying to eat better than every time before you eat you must say to yourself " is this going against my resolution?" Make sure you know exactly what you want so you can go about and accomplish it.
6.) Track your progress. When you can look back and see what you have done just in the past week it will motivate you to keep working and accomplish more. If you are trying to lose weight than instead of taking one before picture and one after picture, take pictures weekly so whenever you feel like giving up you can see how far you have come.
7.) Use your resources. With modern day technology there is no excuse for saying "I was going to change this but I didn't know how to go about it." Use your resources to find out keys to accomplishing any goal. In fact if you are reading this you are using technology to help go about achieving your goal. If you are trying to get fit than there are plenty of apps, books, websites, personal trainers, guides, etc to help you. If you are trying to quit smoking than there are plenty of books and guides.
8.) Celebrate! Sometimes the little celebrations are more rewarding than the actual end product. But be careful make sure your celebration doesn't go against what your goal is. For example just because you ate healthy for a month does not mean you can go to McDonalds and celebrate.
9.) Accept the fact that they might not work. There is absolutely nothing wrong with going back and modifying your resolution because something is not possible. If your goal was to go the the gym 5 days a week and your schedule only allows time for 4 days a week than that is okay. Sometimes your goals are just impossible every once in a while. For example if your goal was to save 100 dollars a week and you have bills that you must pay because it is the law than obviously you can't achieve your goal for that week, and that's alright just go right back at it again the next week.
10.) Don't give up! People often slip-up on their resolution and just give up. If you are trying to eat healthy and you have a piece of cake don't just give up and say "oh well i tried", put it behind you and get back on track. People often use small cheats as an excuse to just totally stop trying.
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