How To Set New Year’s Resolutions
Whether you’re getting prepared ahead of January or you’re a few weeks late thinking about how you want to change your life in the new year, setting a New Year’s resolution can be lots of fun. Resolutions are a great way to pick up new habits, get rid of some less desirable ones and generally alter your life for the better.
Unfortunately, though, we can often set resolutions that aren’t quite right for us and end up falling behind on accomplishing our goals. So how can you set an achievable New Year’s resolution this time around?
What are good New Year’s resolutions?
When we talk about setting good resolutions, it’s often not the case that the goal itself is a bad one. For instance, perhaps you’ve decided you want to lose weight ahead of getting married. That’s by no means the wrong decision, but it can be a bad resolution if you don’t plan it properly or if you’re not doing it for the right reasons. Here’s a look at what planning a good New Year’s resolution might look like.
Choose SMART goals
You might think SMART goals are best reserved for work or school, but they can actually be really helpful in your personal life as well. If you’ve not heard the term before, SMART stands for:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound
It’s a framework that encourages you to make your goals more streamlined to avoid vague, meaningless targets that are hard to hit.
So, instead of saying: ‘I want to lose weight before the wedding.’
You might instead say: ‘I want to lose 10 lbs of weight by dieting and exercising by the 10th of July.’
Of course, you should adjust each aspect of the goal to suit you, but the key is to make a crystal clear plan of what you want to do, how you’ll do it, how you’ll measure success, and when you want to have completed the goal by. Don’t forget to make it achievable, which means choosing a target that you can realistically expect to hit within the time frame.
Make sure they’re desirable to you, not just your friends or family
Something that’s really important when setting New Year’s resolutions is making sure you’re setting them for you, not your friends and family. At a time when everyone is making goals for the year ahead, it can be easy to get swept up in what everyone else is doing, but if you aren’t motivated to get the goal done yourself, chances are you’re going to fall short. Don’t feel pressured to do what everyone else is doing.
Prepare ahead of time
With long-term goals such as losing weight or improving fitness, you’ll need to work at it for months in order to see results. One way you can make this easier for yourself is to do all the preparation needed ahead of time so that when January rolls around, you can hit the ground running.
For example, if you’re looking to take up exercises such as swimming or jogging, it’s a good idea to get your hands on a swimsuit or some sports tops before you get started. Otherwise, you might waste the first few weeks of January trying to find the right kit, which can drain all your motivation and really impact your chances of achieving your goal.
Be kind to yourself
Finally, have compassion for yourself. Picking up or getting rid of a habit cold turkey is really hard, and it’s only natural that you might miss a day or two due to unforeseen circumstances. Try not to berate yourself about it, as this can make the habit feel like a chore and make you resent having to do it the next day.
Instead, be kind to yourself. Acknowledge that these things happen and do your best to complete the habit the next day. You don’t have to make up for the missed progress, but you can try to do that too if it’s safe and possible to do so. By doing this, you increase the likelihood that you’ll stick to the habit in the long run, thereby reaping more of the rewards and benefits of doing so.
Bonus! If you’re finding it hard to find an area of self-improvement you can realistically make progress on, don’t stress about it. Consider picking a Just For Fun resolution, such as trying 12 new foods or giving some spare change to every busker you see. Even something as trivial as that can help to improve your perseverance, which may have knock-on effects in self-improvement without you even trying!