How to keep your New Year’s Resolutions

Have you been guilty of setting New Year’s resolutions and then forgetting about them, or maybe even giving up before you really got started?

In Australia, the five most common resolutions people make at the beginning of a new year are:

• improving fitness
• eating better
• quitting smoking
• quitting drinking
• learning something new

While the prospect of a blank canvas can make people feel that they can achieve anything, statistics indicate that only 4% of people who make New Year’s resolutions stick to them, with 80% dropping them before the second week of February.

For most of us that means our resolutions remain unfulfilled dreams or a list of things that we never got around to doing.

Why don’t people keep their New Year’s resolutions?

One of the biggest reasons that people don’t keep their New Year resolutions is because resolutions are just that — vague wish-lists. Very few people take the steps required to achieve what they’d like.

To help you turn your resolutions into achievements, here are our top tips to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and turn them into reality.

Tips to keep your New Year’s resolutions

Choose something that’s important to you

For any of us to do the work towards a goal, we need it to mean something to us. Don’t set a goal to complete a 10km fun run if you hate running. Set a goal that is important to you, that you can get excited about.

Set a SMART goal

SMART goals are those that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. For example, if you want to lose weight:

• A specific goal is “I want to lose 10kg in 6 months”, NOT “I want to lose weight”.
• You can measure this goal by checking in with the scales each week, and by trying on your clothes to see how they fit.
• An achievable goal is “I will exercise 3-5 days a week to achieve my weight loss goal”, NOT “I must exercise every day, no matter what”.
• A realistic goal is to lose the weight in 6 months, not 1 month.
• Setting a time limit on a goal can be helpful, as it prevents you from procrastinating and avoiding acting. However, don’t worry if you don’t reach your target by this time. Sometimes factors beyond our control get in our way, or along the way, we realise that we need to learn some skills to be able to achieve our goal. Instead of being hard on yourself, simply re-set the timeline for your goal, and keep working.

Break your goal into chunks

If your goal is large or seems overwhelming, break it down into chunks. For example, if you want to save $10,000 in 12 months don’t focus on the whole amount. Just set yourself monthly goals for your savings. In this case, you’ll need to save about $830 per month. That might also sound like a lot, so break that down into weekly goals, and ask yourself where you can save just over $200 each week by looking at the smaller things. If you’re someone who buys their lunch most days, along with a couple of take-away coffees, set yourself a goal to limit that to once a week, or cut back on a few grocery items that you really don’t need to buy. You’ll soon see that the money you save each week will add up and saving $10,000 in a year won’t seem difficult or overwhelming at all.

Focus on the small actions

It can be tempting to try to tackle all of your goal in one hit, or go from “0 to 100” (i.e. too hard, too soon). This is particularly the case when people set a goal to lose weight. Instead of starting out by exercising a few times a week, and changing some of their eating habits, they try to do long workouts every day, and completely cut out carbs, sugar, alcohol, or anything else they think will work.

However, consistent action is better than going hard. Doing too much too soon will only cause you to feel overwhelmed, burned out or injured (in the case of exercise), which means that you’ll give up before you really get started. Instead, focus on making small changes and turn them into new habits. For example, if you want to lose weight, aim to walk three times a week or limit takeaway to once a week, or only drink alcohol on the weekend and limiting it to one or two drinks.

Add in accountability

If you really want to achieve something, make yourself accountable. Most people are afraid to be accountable, but research shows that if you tell someone else about your goal, you have a 65% chance of succeeding. However, when you make yourself accountable to the person you’ve shared your goal with your chances increase to a massive 95%!

Celebrate your progress

When you achieve the milestones along the way to achieving your goal, it’s important to congratulate yourself and celebrate your success. This helps confirm that your goal is worthy and helps you build your self-esteem and belief that you can get there. Work out in advance what your key milestones are, and how you will reward yourself for achieving them. Having something to look forward to will help you continue to take those daily steps that will see you achieve your goal. And don’t forget a BIG celebration for when you reach your final goal.

If your New Year’s resolutions are already feeling like a distant memory, don’t feel bad. Instead, set yourself some SMART goals, work out a plan and recruit someone you can be accountable to. If you do, you may be amazed at what you’re able to achieve over the next 12 months.

 

References

[1] Statista, How many of the New Year’s resolutions that you made for 2018 did you stick to?, https://www.statista.com/statistics/953562/share-of-americans-who-stuck-to-their-new-year-s-resolutions/

[1] Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education, The Power of Accountability, https://www.afcpe.org/news-and-publications/the-standard/2018-3/the-power-of-accountability/

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