New Year's resolutions are a dime a dozen these days. Everyone and their mother has one; losing weight, quitting smoking, finding love, being more organized, getting more involved in extracurricular activities at school. You name it, someone has vowed to commit themselves to it.
I've had New Year's resolutions before and only one has ever really stuck for any significant amount of time. I personally don't see the point in them anymore. Why wait until the turn of the year to try and make yourself a better person? Why not commit yourself to that all year long? I can see how the allure of the new year could be used as extra motivation, but despite all the good intentions in the world, only about 8 percent of people who make New Year's resolutions actually achieve their goals.
There are a lot of different factors that contribute to the death of a New Year's resolution, but there are also plenty of things that can be done to be part of that 8 percent of people who turn their dreams into reality.
1. Define the goal
Figure out exactly what it is you want to accomplish. Do you want to volunteer more with your favorite charity? Adopt a shelter animal? Reduce how much coffee or soda you drink? Make more time for self-care?
2. Make a plan
Think about who you are and who you want to be, then write down what it's going to take to become that person. Taking your thoughts out of your head and putting them onto paper will take them from some abstract aspiration to a real plan of action that you can put into effect.
3. Set a timeline
Pick a day to start, pick a day by which you ideally want to achieve your goal, set small checkups or milestones in-between that will help keep you on track, and then put it all in your calendar. Since most people are obnoxiously attached to their phones (myself included), I'd suggest an online calendar connected to your email so that you can sync it with your phone and access it anytime and anywhere.
4. Anticipate slip-ups
Be real with yourself and think about what could possibly trip you up. Don't psych yourself out, but accept the fact that falling off the wagon is a possibility. Why? You're human and humans mess up sometimes.
5. Find your motivation
No matter what your goal is, you need motivation; daily and long-term. Who and/or what made you decide to make changes in your life? Who and/or what is going to keep you on track if you fall off? The promise of a new beginning at the turn of the new year is only going to keep you motivated for so long. Once everyone gets over that whole "new year, new me" nonsense, what's going to keep your New Year's resolution from fading away into the background with the other 92 percent of failed resolutions?
6. Choose one: cold turkey or baby steps
If your goal involves removing something from your life, you can either do it cold turkey - meaning that you give it up entirely from the start - or you can do it gradually. A lot of people will say that doing it gradually is better, and they're not entirely wrong. That's why a lot of crash diets fail; it's a shock to the system that you're usually not ready for and withdrawals often cause people to rush back to whatever it is that they're trying to cut out of their life. I've tried quitting coffee cold turkey before and it fails miserably every time, because my body is so used to having caffeine that it doesn't function well without it.
On the other hand, sometimes quitting cold turkey is just what you need. For me personally, I had to walk away from a toxic relationship that way. I tried to gradually distance myself from the person, but even just having them in my life a little bit was triggering. So one day, I just cut things off entirely. To be honest, it was really tough for a long time. But I did what I had to.
7. Decide if your goal is actually attainable
After all the planning, strategizing, and soul searching is done, ask yourself if what you've mapped out is actually attainable for you. I feel like one of the biggest killers of New Year's resolutions is that people set ridiculous goals for themselves; i.e. losing 20 pounds in one week or quitting smoking in one month after being addicted for 10 years. It's good to hold yourself to high standards and have big aspirations, but you have to be careful not to set yourself up for failure. I'll admit that I'm guilty of doing that. It's tough because you have this vision of how you want things to be, but life doesn't always turn out the way you want it when you want it to.
8. Don't think of it as a New Year's resolution
There's a lot of negative stigma surrounding New Year's resolutions because a lot of people don't stick to them, and I think we subconsciously associate New Year's resolutions with failure because of that fact. Instead, think of your resolution as simply an aspiration; an aspiration to be the best version of yourself that you can be. A lot of people also abandon their resolutions because they think "well it's already June now so there's no point in trying anymore until next year". If you see your goal as an aspiration instead of a New Year's resolution, you might be more motivated to stick to it later in the year.
9. Do it
I know it's easier said than done, but at the end of the day all the planning and good intentions in the world aren't going to give you results. Doing what you say you're going to do is.
