10 Secrets on How to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolution
Introduction
New Year’s resolution…..
I am sure, we will all remember 2020 for the rest of our lives.
The holiday season is over and 2024 is here. As you indulge in introspection and look at some of your life choices, New Year’s resolutions are the perfect opportunity to start making changes. As human beings, we create habits. Changing those habits is not easy. It becomes even more difficult if we are not motivated or have a circle of friends who are not positive. To become a beautiful butterfly, it has to go through the egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages.
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living – Gail Sheehy
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future – John F. Kennedy
New year’s resolutions are not an incentive or stimulus to make across the board changes in character. I suggest you reflect on 2020 and make some positive lifestyle changes. If you recognize a change is required, here are some suggestions on sticking to your new year’s resolutions.
Write It Down
By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands – your own – Mark V Hansen
If you write down your New Year’s resolutions and remind yourself daily, you have a better chance of accomplishing them. If you log it in a journal, it helps you keep track of your progress.
Make It Small and Realistic
You have to find out what’s right for you, so it’s trial and error. You are going to be all right if you accept realistic goals for yourself – Teri Garr
Lose weight, exercise more, eat healthy, change jobs, earn more, and travel. These are amazing New Year’s resolutions. However, these are huge goals and you are setting yourself up for failure. Focus on only one goal. Make it realistic and go for it. Do you have the discipline, focus, and commitment to achieve the goal? Remember, you are not trying to overhaul your whole life. You will set yourself up for failure and disappointment.
Make It Exact
A goal properly set is halfway reached – Zig Ziglar
A New Year’s resolution needs to be doable, meaningful, and aligned with your goals and values. Research shows that people fail in their resolutions when it is based not on their choice but on the choices of society or their friends and they do not have a plan.
I love SMART goals. It should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Have an Accountability Partner
Most goals people set are not achieved because they are not held accountable for them. When goals are made in private they tend to fall off because people stop being motivated, stop focusing, and stop prioritizing – Bola Onada Sokunbi
You will be more successful in achieving your New Year’s resolution if you share it with someone and be accountable. You have written the resolution on the fridge, it is in your diary, now it is time for someone to know about it and keep you on track.
Reassess Your Goals
Self-awareness requires us to reassess where we came from and where we are going – Kilroy J. Oldster
You have made one or two New Year’s resolutions. As time goes by, re-evaluate the resolution. Is it still unrealistic? Make some changes. Perfection is not the goal. You will stumble along the way. It is normal to have ups and downs in our lives. Always focus on getting back on track.
Enjoy the Accomplishments
Make time to celebrate your achievements no matter how big or small – Unknown
If you set a goal to save 3,000 dollars for the year. After two months, you have only saved $300. You need to celebrate the fact that you are getting better at saving money.
A goal needs to be doable, meaningful, and aligned with your goals and values. Research shows that people fail in their resolutions when it is based not on their choice but on the choices of society or their friends and they do not have a plan.
Find a Support Group
Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much – Helen Keller
There are many real-life and online support forums and groups on social media that are aiming for similar goals. When you join a group it is a community, a sense of belonging, a belief in getting things done, and the willingness to change.
Stay Away from Negativity
Don’t walk away from negative people – run! – Mark Twain
There is a chance that the very people you hang out with are stopping you from changing. If you want to quit smoking, drinking, or any other behavior it is important to stop hanging around an environment that encourages that behavior.
Have a Time-Frame
And the reason for focusing on that time frame is that it’s going to take us a considerable period of time to develop the new capabilities – Stephen Cambone
To be and stay motivated, have a time frame. In a diary have a plan of action for the next 12 months and you decide how often you want to evaluate.
Never Ever Give Up
Never give up. Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine – Jack Ma
No matter what happens, you should never give up. Stay on the course and stick to your New Year’s resolution.
We have been through so much in 2020. The collective pain will last for a while.
I admire you for making a New Year’s resolution. I admire you for reading this post. Now I want you to meet your goal of achieving your New Year’s resolution. Go for it. Finally, here are some New Year’s resolution ideas:
Exercise more and lose weight
Save money
Be Happier
Get out of debt
Volunteer and give to charity
Be more responsible
Great tips! I really need to start writing down my resolutions because I’m definitely guilty of not following them through to the end 😅 Happy New Year! 🥳
I am so focussed on goal setting. I do my personal goals each year and also stress that my sales team do them as well. Personal and professional goals. Write them down and look at them regularly as a reminder. Make them achievable and stay focused and never give up. Great tips!
These are all such good ways to stay focused on our goals – not just in the New Year but whenever we feel the need to regroup! I love using the New Year as a sort of reset button. I look back on the year before and pull out the good things that happened and the lessons I learned from the not so good moments. I take all this knowledge and use it to make the changes or adjustments I need in order to achieve my goals, dreams and just be happy with myself and life!
I think having someone that keeps you in check is essential. My sister and I are each other’s accountability partner. We encourage each other and celebrate the victories (big or small). It definitely keeps you going when you have a cheerleader!
What a great motivational post. I now look forward to all the new changes headed my way. Thank you.
I always had such a difficult time with achieiving resolutions when i was young I just stopped participating in this ritual year’s ago. But now with some age ( and a bit of wisdom) under my belt, I’ve decided to make some New Year’s resolutions again. I love your tips here to keep your goals realistic and achievable. I think that this is the key. Also, I like the idea of writing it down and being accountable someone for it. Great post thanks for sharing!
Awesome tips! I love the realistic part of the goals and having an accountability partner, that makes such a difference!!
Goal Settings are a must for me this year. I have many plans for 2020. By setting a goal and take it step by step, one day at a time, will definitely keep me right.
These are such great tips for achieving your goals. I like your idea of making the goal exact and realistic. I’ve found that writing down my goals, along with a plan to achieve them works for me.
I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions simply because I think once the ‘buzz’ wears off, most people begin to falter leading to a downward spiral of feeling guilty for not succeeding the way they would like to. There is so much pressure to make big, ‘over the top’ goals that many people fail to consider the steps necessary to get there. However, I do believe strongly in the concept of goal setting throughout the year and the tips you’ve given here can definitely be applied to any goal setting activities.
I love that you mentioned reflecting on the past year and then making lifestyle changes. When we reflect properly, we’ll find the right reason for making changes and be more inclined to try harder. And yes, celebrate the achievements. I am often too good at knocking myself down – I need to try to change that.
Habits die hard is such a big reality and it requires such great resolve to go ahead and change. Great thoughts on how to go about achieving once a positive decision is taken.
Those are some awesome and actually easy ways to actually stick to our resolutions! I’m definitely trying various out!
That reminds me that I need to set up my journal and write my goals down. I use social media to hold myself accountable, once I post something I need to follow through
These are really good ideas for setting goals period. Even if it isn’t a new year. I really never got into the new year’s resolution thing so it’s just another day for me. But I do try to start off each day as a new and fresh chance to achieve what I am focused on and to let go of the bad things that may have occurred the day before. It takes a lot of work so I kind of need to do that daily. I also like the acronym for S.M.A.R.T. goals.
I love how you talk about making reasonable and achievable goals. That is the biggest thing, in my opinion, and why so many people fail. A goal is easily overwhelming without a plan or being realistic. Great tips, Jerry! My big one that I’ve been working on is surrounding myself with positive people. My circle of friends and who I spend my time with is gradually changing, and in the best way possible.
Nicely written. Funny enough I have a similar post and you pointed out a few things that I did too.
God knows that I tried to stay away from negativity sometimes negativity is just all around you and now with this coronavirus thing everybody’s freaking out and doing stupid stuff I just wish that this year just chills a little
I agree with having accountability after I set goals. It’s great to checkin with someone else because, they tend to notice things we don’t.
I love the idea that goals should be practical and attainable.
Great tips! There’s no way I’d be able to keep any goals without writing them down and placing them somewhere I see them often. That constant reminder is so important to reinforce good behavior
I don’t use new years resolutions I use yearly goals because then its long term and not short term
WHOOHOO!!! I do all of these!
I absolutely love your article, especially the idea of having an accountability partner which makes a world of difference!