Helpful Tips For Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions
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2020 was a year with major unprecedented challenges for everyone across the world. From a global pandemic to natural disasters and other unexpected catastrophes, it is important to take a step back from the negativity and focus on your own mental well-being. As we start fresh with a new year, we’ve put together six helpful tips on how to create and stick to your New Year’s resolutions to start 2021 on the right foot.
#1: Be practical
Setting goals is one of the first few key first steps that'll help you come up with an outline of resolutions you’d want to keep for the new year. However, aspirations that are too ambitious may set us back even further from the end point if we realise they are too big for us to accomplish. Over-extending yourself to accomplish a task too big for your shoulders may lead to greater disappointments, hence, it is important to set realistic and manageable goals that’ll keep you on track to reach a greater endpoint.
#2: Be specific
Tying into the first point of being practical with your resolutions, it is also crucial to be specific in your goals. It is easy to list down ‘Exercise more often’ if you’re not exercising at all, but how often exactly do you want to be exercising? Being specific and clear with your goals can help you manage your expectations better as well as keep you disciplined enough to follow through instead of finding loopholes for not carrying through with your resolutions. So, instead of saying that you’ll ‘Exercise more often’, it may be better to switch it up to ‘Exercise twice a week’.
#3: Have regular check-ins
With resolutions and goals set that last throughout the year, you can get lost and stumble through it here and there. Having regular check-ins with yourself can help you keep on track whilst coming up with solutions to help you reach your goals easier if you find yourself struggling. It can also help you be in tune with your own mental health and emotions – perhaps you may need to shift your goals or create new ones due to unforeseen circumstances with work or family, and you should feel okay giving yourself the space to do so.
#4: Celebrate small wins
Giving yourself a pat on the back and acknowledging your own achievements is more important than you realise. You set your personal resolutions to be an even greater version of yourself, so if you don’t celebrate the small victories that you’ve accomplished, who will?
#5: Stick with what works and form a routine
Humans are creatures of habit, and according to Healthline, it can take a person anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a habit and an average of 66 for the action to be automatic. Hence, sticking to a routine that fits nicely into your lifestyle and schedule may help you tremendously in achieving your resolutions.
#6: Believe in yourself
Having faith in yourself and knowing that you are able to follow through with your goals is important as you’re stepping into the new year with resolutions to be met. Believing that you can accomplish your goals is already half the battle won and the other half should be put into action for you to reach your goals. Doubting your abilities can cause you to overthink and create this domino effect of pessimistic thoughts that will pile up and lead you to be too nervous to even take the first step into change. Hence, take baby steps and enter the new year with a fresh start.
