Sticking to Your New Year's Resolution

New Year’s is quickly approaching and everyone knows what that means. New Year resolutions that are hastily made and quickly abandoned.  It is estimated that only 8% of Americans successfully achieve their New Year resolutions.  As we say every year, this year could be different.  Here are some helpful tips to help you keep your New Year’s resolution:

Make it attainable

·       Many resolutions are abandoned quickly because they just aren’t realistic.  Choosing something that can be attained rather than an unrealistic goal means you are more likely to reach it. Create small, attainable goals for yourself

 Tell everyone

·       If you tell everyone about your resolution, you are more likely to keep it.  Many people have been using social media to this end, and it helps keep them honest and motivated about reaching the goal they set out to.  Becoming accountable for sticking to your resolution means an increased likelihood for success.  

Be specific

·       Set specific goals for fitness or weight loss so you can actually track your progress. Without this specificity, you can lose track of what your goal is or even realize when you’ve achieved it. Writing it down can help you organize your thoughts and goals for yourself.

Focus on process

·       You're a lot more likely to reach your goals if you focus on the steps you need to take to get there rather than the end result itself.  Breaking your goal down into smaller steps, like making mini goals can make it easier for you to achieve your long term goal.  Rewarding the steps along the way can motivate you to keep going, especially when the steps are challenging and the goal is a tough one. Putting your energy into process rather than the end result slowly build better habits that you can stick to even if you don’t reach your goal.  This means success will be easier in the future. 

Repeat, repeat, repeat

·       It takes an average of 66 days before a new routine becomes automatic and subconscious.  Each time you repeat the same action, consider it a mini-victory and know that it moves you one step closer to making your resolution an official habit.

Choose one not many

·       Choose to focus on one goal that will either have the greatest impact on your life, is easy to accomplish, or simply is the one with the greatest chance of success.  You can’t achieve everything and the more goals you set for yourself simultaneously, the less likely you are to put enough effort into any of them to reach them.