How to stick to your New Year’s Resolutions

Many people look to the New Year as a chance to start afresh. A lot of people set resolutions as a way of planning out their goals for the year, but find they don’t stick to them. Personally, I’m not a fan of doing this. I feel that there’s a general sense amongst people that most resolutions won’t survive beyond the end of January, which seems a sure-fire way to fail before you’ve even started. However, I do think there’s value to be had in simply outlining basic goals for the new year. It can give you perspective on what you would like to achieve over the next 12 months, and picking the traditional 3 resolutions for the new year makes you prioritise your interests. If you find you’ve usually broken your New Years’ resolutions before the end of the first week of the year, read on for tips to keep yourself on track…

Set achievable targets

Working towards a big or long-term goal is a good way to keep motivation high throughout the year. Yet bigger targets can seem daunting sometimes. Lots of people aim to eat healthily, but this can be difficult if you’re trying to eliminate all junk food straightaway. Instead of going cold-turkey immediately, set little targets along the way. Using healthy eating as an example, you could try to reduce your chocolate intake and focus on getting your recommended 5-a-day. If there’s something you absolutely cannot live without, try limiting it to a few times a week.

Be realistic

As you’ve probably heard before, success isn’t necessarily quick and easy. This is why it’s important to be realistic about your goals. Wanting to run a marathon is a great goal, but if you can only just tackle a 5K course, you won’t be running a marathon the next day. That’s not to say you can’t run a marathon at all in 2018, just be realistic with your timings. You could check out some training plans online, set out reasonable timeframes, and go from there.

Resolutions do not have to be year-long commitments

12 months can fly by, but if you plan ahead you can make the most of it. If you don’t want to set long-term goals, maybe try to tick some things off your bucket list. It can be as simple as an adventurous day out, a resolution to go without social media for a week, or just to try saying ‘yes’ to things that will push you out of your comfort zone. The point is, a resolution can be as short or long-term as you want it to be. Veganuary is a really good way to trial veganism without the pressure of committing for the entire year, and in a similar vein, shorter goals can present you with the opportunity to try lots of new things. Shorter goals can also give you the flexibility to follow through with them whenever you wish, which can be helpful if you have busy periods during the year.

All in all, your New Years’ resolutions can help you to improve yourself over the year and, ultimately, they are what you make of them. If, like me, you find it’s more of a new year novelty exercise you probably won’t set any resolutions for 2018, but there’s no harm in setting goals for yourself nonetheless. Even if it is only achieving something menial like tackling your laundry over the weekend.