New Years Resolution
“My New Years Resolution is to STICK to my New Years Resolution!”
It’s that time of year again when we get that boost of motivation to create and actually achieve our New Years Resolutions. Whether it be to lose weight, have more patience, or simply enjoy life more, the purpose of our New Years Resolutions is to improve ourselves. We all have a natural desire to become a better person. However, it can be very easy to get caught up in our daily routines, succumbing to life’s inevitable difficulties. Before we know it, New Years has passed and our resolutions are long forgotten.
One of the main reasons why New Years resolutions and most goals, for that matter, are unsuccessful is because improvement takes practice. When we create a goal, its not enough to work at it here and there. It takes daily commitment, discipline, and persistence accompanied with a strong underlying motivation, despite the external turmoil.
Think about this…
You have a desire to feel better overall. You know from experience that when you stick to a daily exercise routine and eat a healthier diet, you have significantly more energy and not to mention, a more positive attitude! Because of your daily efforts, you feel better, even if you don’t immediately see the physical results. However, when life gets in the way, you find yourself losing the discipline and motivation to do the things that make you feel good. You find that you put others before yourself, catering to everyone else’s needs before your own, and neglecting your own body and health. You wonder why your motivation gradually slips away and it becomes so difficult to stick with your goals.
How To Stick To Them…
Although there are a multitude of reasons as to why we have trouble sticking to our goals, there are some tricks that we can put in place to enhance our “goal-achieving abilities”. These include habits, motivation, and discipline.
Habits
Habits are the things we do on a daily basis that we don’t have to think much about doing. We form habits because our brains naturally like routine and consistency. It’s an efficient way to get things done. However, just like we have good habits (like brushing our teeth every morning), we can also have “not so good” habits (like procrastinating calling our mother-in-law). Habits have a direct influence on whether or not we achieve our goals. Essentially, when we create goals, we are attempting to create change in our life. Because our natural tendency is to gravitate towards consistency, we have a harder time implementing change. Therefore, to truly achieve our resolutions, we have to be willing to create new habits in our daily life.
Example- Your New Years resolution is to lose 10 pounds by April. To achieve this, you commit yourself to exercising 4x per week and limiting yourself to dessert 2x per week. In addition, you will keep a food log of your calorie consumption on a daily basis.
Because exercising on a daily basis, limiting yourself to dessert, and consistently keeping a food log are not current habits, this may be difficult to sustain, especially in the short term. Therefore, when creating a goal or a New Years resolution, it’s vital to understand how you can make this a habit.
How will exercise fit into your daily routine?
How will you stick to this on a daily basis, regardless of life’s inevitable problems?
What time will you write in your food log?
Thinking about these questions beforehand will help you to create new habits, as well as overcome future potential obstacles.
Motivation
The next trick to stick to your goals is the level of motivation that you have to achieve them. Yes, we all want to lose weight, look our best, improve who we are, get our work done, take up a new hobby, etc. However, do we have the motivation or enough of a compelling reason to achieve them? Motivation stems from the reasons why we want to achieve our goals. Therefore, it’s not enough to say, “my goal is to lose weight because I want to look and feel better.” A more compelling reason would be, “my goal is to lose weight because I will wake up every morning with pride and accomplishment. I will be more energized to walk, swim, and bike ride with my husband and I will feel proud when I receive compliments from friends.”
Do you see the difference between the two goal statements? In order to maintain our motivation, we must have compelling reasons as to why we have a desire to achieve them. When creating goals, ask yourself:
How will I feel when I accomplish this?
What will be the positive impact that achieving this goal will have?
How will I enjoy the journey of accomplishing my goal?
Why is this goal worth it to me?
You will know when you achieved a high level of motivation when your desire to achieve your goal turns into a priority.
Discipline in the Face of Difficulty
Let’s face it – life get’s hard. As much as we love routine and planning our days, life will sometimes throw us a curve ball. Whether that curve ball be spilt milk in the morning, the alarm clock not going off, or your daughter waking up sick, we are responsible for handling these situations each day. When these “daily surprises” happen, it’s easy to put achieving our goal on the backburner. Let’s look at an example…
You’ve set your New Years Resolution of losing 10 pounds by April. You’ve created small habits to incorporate exercise and eating healthier into your daily life. And, you’ve been reminding yourself of the compelling reasons as to why you want to achieve this. As a result, you’ve found yourself motivated each day and have been proud of your progress. However, one morning your 6:00am alarm doesn’t go off. You finally wake up and it’s 8:30am (AKA no time for the gym!) You have lunch plans at Parc at 10:00am and you still have to get up, drink your morning coffee (of course), and get ready. However, instead of accepting the fact that you overslept and now have no time for the gym, you decide to adjust your plans. Instead of your usual gym routine, you arrange to play tennis for 1 hour later in the day.
Discipline in the face of life’s inevitable problems requires adjustments to your plans, as well as your mindset. When life throws you a curve ball instead of saying, “alright, well now I can’t do it”, try thinking “alright, now how can I do it?” It’s a matter of prioritizing your goal and adjusting your plans and mindset, regardless of the circumstances. A helpful trick is to think about how proud and accomplished you will feel after you stuck with your goal in the face of a difficulty. This will help you to make a decision in the moment where you will be thankful to your future self.
The New Year is an exciting time that brings forth change, hope, and possibilities. It’s up to you to seize it in the best way that you can.