Yes, it´s that time of the year again! The time when we get the chance to kickstart a new phase and make all our dreams come true. Soon the “new year- new me” bullsh*t will come up once again on social media. At the same time, most people will follow the trend with the sad New Year´s resolutions consisting of vague and unrealistic wishes that are rarely fulfilled. Likewise, research shows that about half of all adults make New Year’s resolutions from which fewer than 10% manage to keep them for more than a couple of months. Don´t end up with a sad resolution, or worse, with no plan at all! By taking the decision to make a New Year resolution that sticks and force yourself to actually follow it, you gain a direction and all the chances to make a change in whatever aspect you wish. Here´re 7 tips for making your resolution a success:
1. Don´t wait until the New Year´s eve to make a resolution
Changing your behaviour, or some aspect of it doesn’t have to be specifically restricted to the start of the New Year. It can be anytime. Pick a day when you know you’ll be well-rested, enthusiastic and ready to take the challenge.
2. Make a retrospection first
Reflect on what went well this year, what could´ve been better and what you could possibly do about it. Reflect on the difference this change would make and how it could impact your life. So basically, why do you want it? You may want to focus on the goals that have the greatest impact on your happiness, wellbeing, health and fulfilment. Likewise, you may as well focus on performance or school-related goals. More importantly, don´t go with the trendy goals (such as “I want to travel more “I want to be healthier or quit smoking” ) that everyone is setting just because it sounds cool whilst in reality, they don´t have that deep commitment to go for it.
3. Keep it simple and realistic
Set 1-2 overall concrete, specific and measurable goals for the following year in the respective aspect of your life, being it school, sport, relationships, personality, tendencies, etc. Make sure that the goals are not bound for failure, so pick something that you actually believe you can achieve. See other methods to organise goals.
4. Make an action plan
Create an action plan based on the overall goals by breaking them in small chunks. So you could begin with setting 2 goals for every 3 months, then every month, one every week and finally small progress you could aim for every day related to that target.
5. Set a time frame or deadlines
This is not to make you feel pressured, but rather to make your vision realistic, clear and structured. Organise some small task you can achieve every month/week/day and embrace these small wins as you go on. Remember to award yourself for those wins with something that brings pleasure!
6. Prioritize and rehearse
If it´s important to you, you can always find time for it. Put the overall goal visible to you so, that you wouldn’t forget about it in a few weeks. Likewise, revisit the resolution every month to check out if you´re staying on track. If you´re hit by continuous failure, don´t get discouraged, it´s a part of the process as long as you´re going in the right direction, but if not, then you should take another look at yourself and set smaller goals that you could achieve. Anyways, the potential that you will go for the change relies upon your priorities which eventually depend on your values. So revisit your values and make it a priority!
Good luck and all the best in your next journey!
“New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.”
-Alex Morritt
