How to stick to your News Year's resolutions

By Amanda Adams-Welligee Coach

Personally, I am a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. I think taking the time to reflect on the past year, looking inside ourselves at our strengths and weaknesses, and coming up with a plan as to what we can better about ourselves for the upcoming year can bring about extraordinary change.

Now, let’s get realistic. How many of us can say we went through a year and took the necessary steps to consistently work towards reaching our resolutions? Some may honestly be able to say they felt successful in one or more resolutions, while others sheepishly realize that by the end of January, their alleged motivation was whittling away. You are not alone in this. Whether your resolution was aimed towards a health and fitness goal, centered around your career, or other lifestyle change, if it was truly going to warrant a large-scale shift, it was going to take a lot of discipline and determination to reach. This is not to say that you do not have these characteristics in you if you haven’t been successful in the past, but maybe it was your approach that was not working for you. Here are some great strategies to help you set your next New Year’s resolution, and actually keep it this time!

1. Be positive
One of the first, and possibly most important, things you can do to keep your journey moving in the right direction is to maintain a positive outlook. Negative self-talk and losing the belief that you have what it takes never brings forth good results. With that being said, there are going to be days that these thoughts want to start creeping up into your head, after all, we are often our toughest critics. Where the action really comes into play is learning to turn the negatives into positives. Instead of “I failed at completing my entire 60 minute workout,” try, “So I didn’t exercise for quite as long as I wanted to today, but I still got to the gym and that is better than sitting on the couch.”

2. Start small
Charles Duhigg discusses the concept of “keystone habits” in his book, The Power of Habit. According to Duhigg, a keystone habit is a single new habit that can lead to a more widespread change in behavior. He states that overloading yourself with a long list of changes will only lead you to feel as though you have been turned inside out while working towards the goal. Instead, prioritize what needs to be altered in your daily life in order to lead towards a positive change, and use each milestone to build momentum as you go along.

It is also important to celebrate these small achievements along the way. Teresa Amabile, author and Professor at the Harvard Business School, found that individuals who tracked small achievements each day and took the time to reflect on these minor, yet important, achievements had increased motivation, creativity, and sense of competence. These small accomplishments are completely ruled by the individual. It can be anything from walking past the vending machine without grabbing a salty snack to signing up for a professional development seminar to further your career. Any action of any magnitude should be identified and tracked on a daily basis so that you can reflect on your continuing progress.

3. ...but end big!
It is important to be realistic when setting your resolution(s), but you also want to make it a challenge. As previously stated, identifying minor achievements along the way will continue to fuel your motivation fire, yet, the sense of reaching a large, long term resolution will make you feel unstoppable. When combating the smaller achievements, keep this larger goal in mind as a push to keep the progress moving in the right direction.

4. Commit yourself to your success
Literally, make yourself one with your success and use it as a mantra to convince yourself to keep going. Hoping to run in this year’s local 5k? Start telling yourself, “I am a runner.” Want to stop eating the donuts brought into every office meeting? Start saying, “I do not eat donuts.” When you commit yourself to a principle that will help in reaching your goal, you lessen the chance of finding alternative reasons to give into a choice that will make you stray. Hearing yourself say it out loud will only engrain these principles even deeper, which leads to my next point...

5. Make it public
Making your resolution public will add an extra level of accountability. Once you have shared with others, whether it is a single, trusted individual or all of your social media followers, you will be asked about your progress and feel additional eyes on you through the process. This might sound intimidating for some, but knowing that others are cheering you on and will expect to see an end result will push you through the days where throwing in the towel seems like the next best thing.

6. Know what’s coming next
Having a resolution action plan is crucial to avoid stagnancy. This can be applied to the process of setting small goals. For example, if your goal is to eliminate artificial ingredients from your diet, tell yourself that weeks one and two you will cut out your go-to nighttime snack of crackers and chips. Then weeks three and four you will build on that goal by also eliminating bread, weeks five and six soda pop, etc. Having an idea of where you are currently and what is to come will keep your resolution methodical and ongoing. It also makes it feel much more doable that going cold turkey and relapsing several weeks in.

7. Reward yourself
When setting small goals to help you reach a long term resolution, also set up rewards along the way as additional motivation. With that being said, these rewards should not contradict the resolution at hand (i.e. going out for a cheeseburger and several drinks when trying to cut down on unhealthy foods, going on a shopping spree when trying to budget your money better, and so on.) Make the reward both exciting enough to motivate you, yet reasonable enough to keep you on track.

It is important to note that no matter how big or small our resolutions are, and no matter how much or little determination we have, there are going to be instances where we just can’t muster up the courage to abide by our set plan. THIS IS OKAY! Whether it is a bad morning, bad day, bad week, or even bad month, we are never at a point where we cannot put the car back in drive and keep moving forward. Do not let 2016 roll around without you being able to reflect on the upcoming year and say, whether I fully accomplished my resolution or not, I gave it my all, and I am a better person because of it!

Sources:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-small-wins-can-lead-to-big-success/#axzz3NKqaK2f4
https://unclutterer.com/2011/09/22/eleven-strategies-for-achieving-your-goals-from-the-book-willpower/

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