How to Keep Those New Year’s Resolutions Going All Year Long

Every year on January 1st, millions of Americans create resolutions for the year. By February, many of those resolutions are long forgotten. But this doesn’t mean resolutions are pointless or too difficult to maintain. Rather, we think it’s because people aren’t setting the right resolutions (or at least the right terms to their resolutions). Here are our tips for making (and maintaining!) your New Year’s resolutions: Be Specific with Your Resolutions Don’t create general and broad resolutions like “workout more” or “eat healthier foods.” You’re only setting yourself up for failure because you haven’t set any parameters for your resolution. If you want to workout more, create a specific goal, like, “workout three days a week.” If you want to improve your diet, try a resolution like, “eat at least four servings of vegetables a day.” Don’t Be Too Strict While you should be specific with your goals, don’t force yourself into a strict regimen. Rather than a resolution of jogging an hour each day, change the terms to seven hours a week. While it’s still the same weekly amount of jogging, you’re less likely to “mess up” – if you miss one day of jogging, you can jog two hours another day to make up for the lost time. Don’t Overdo It Some people make the mistake of creating too many resolutions. You feel great at first but then halfway into January, you feel overwhelmed trying to balance all your resolutions. Don’t be afraid to make some cuts. If there is a resolution that doesn’t seem important anymore or that seems unrealistic, remove it from your goals. It is better to focus on fewer goals and rock them rather than have so many goals that you can’t give 100% to any of them. Give Yourself Room to Improve Don’t force yourself to achieving your resolution the very first day. Instead, try creating a resolution to which you build. Rather than a resolution of doing 100 push-ups a day, work up to that goal. For the first few months, try to do 25 push-ups a day. For the next few months, work up to 50, then 75, and then 100 by the end of the year. If you have a goal to work towards, you’re more likely to push yourself to keep going. Don’t Be Afraid to Adjust Your Resolution If you feel like you overshot your goals and that trying to reach them are going to add stress to your life, just revise your goals. Bring your resolution to a more attainable level. It will feel good to meet that goal, even if it has been adjusted, rather than giving up completely because you overshot. Allow Yourself to Make Mistakes Just because you forgot to workout one day doesn’t mean you failed your resolution. Don’t dwell and move on! No one’s perfect. Talk About and Share Your Resolutions Go public with your resolutions by letting friends and family know what you plan to achieve this year. That way, you will be accountable for your goals. You will know that people are going to be asking you about your progress, and your competitive cheerleading side will go into autopilot. Hey, you may even find someone with similar goals that can be your resolution buddy! You can keep each other on track! What are your tips for keeping New Year’s resolutions?