So You’ve Made a Resolution

Are you tired of hearing about resolutions and fresh starts yet? New year, new you? Nah. I don’t know about you, but I’m not one to wait until January 1 to decide to implement a change. Don’t get me wrong; I am all for setting goals, and if the new year is your time to start, then go for it!

We’re already three weeks into 2019, so I got to thinking about how many people have already broken their resolutions. According to the NY Post, the average person drops their resolution after only a month. Roughly 80% of people fail to keep their resolution, while only 8% follow through with their goals.

Why do you think it’s so hard to keep resolutions? Maybe we set our sights too high, making it almost impossible to reach our goal. Without knowing it, we could be setting ourselves up for failure before we even start. If you’re struggling to stick to your resolution(s), this list may help.

• Don’t wait for January 1 to make a resolution. Personally, I got tired of making resolutions for the new year, only to fail a few weeks later. I finally decided a few years ago to set a goal for whenever I wanted. In fact, I decided yesterday morning that I wanted to be more consistent with meal planning/preparation, so I spent my afternoon cooking and preparing for the week ahead. So far, so good! Granted, it’s been only a day, but baby steps!
• Try setting small goals that will eventually add up to a large one. For example: if your goal is to run a marathon this fall and you’ve n ever run a yard, let alone a mile, maybe make a goal to first run a 5k. Then as your endurance increases, you can begin setting goals to run longer distances and be ready for that 26.2 come fall.
• If you falter, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Just because you’ve done something that may cause you to miss your goal, it doesn’t mean you need to give up all hope on that goal. If you find it difficult to stay on track, maybe you should reevaluate your goals. You may have set them too high and need to adjust. That’s okay.
• Get support from your friends. Depending on your goal, you may be able to rely on your friends to help stay on track. Maybe your goal is to save money, so your friends could help keep you on track by doing a girls night in instead of spending a night out on the town. Or, if you want to just move more, you could meet a friend at the park and catch up on gossip while you walk. I find friends always help when they know you’re working toward something.
• Do it for you – this may be an obvious one, but make sure you’re making changes and setting goals for you and you only. Don’t do it because “everyone else is doing it”. Peer pressure can make us do a lot of things, but if you’re not doing something because you really want to, you may not stick with your resolution for long.

Hopefully these tips will help you with keeping your resolutions or goals. I wonder if any of the 8% employ some of these tactics when setting their resolutions. Do you have any tips? Please feel free to share in the comments!