5 simple tips on how to make your New Year's Resolutions last
We have all been there.
We got excited towards the end of the year, setting all kinds of goals and resolutions to change our lives completely, starting in January.
And then it’s the 15th of January, and life keeps getting in the way, our motivation is low, and we lose sight of our amazing resolutions one by one.
To make it just a little easier for you to truly stick to the things you set out to do in the New Year, I have compiled my 5 favourite simple tips on how to make your New Year’s Resolutions last in this post.
What you can find in this post about self-growth:
1. Know your why
2. Prepare for success
3. What if?
4. Set a limit
5. Habit stacking
1. Know your Why
This is all about the intention behind your New Year’s Resolution. You must know why you want to change, not only what you want to change.
It is easy to fall into the pressure of new year’s resolutions, and there are always so many things we think we want to change.
Just changing for the sake of changing is almost certainly going to fail.
Because motivation is short-lived, to really change something, you need the discipline to stay consistent with it.
That means you have to be willing to do the work, even when you really don’t feel like it, and there are a million excuses in your head.
Knowing your why helps keep you disciplined because it helps you refocus on the main goal.
“Why” examples:
- I exercise because I want to live in a healthy and strong body.
- I choose to eat healthy (mostly) because I know it fuels my body, brings me energy, and helps me to focus.
- I study because I really want to do the job I am working towards someday.
- I go to bed at 10 pm because I know it sets me up for a better day tomorrow.
- I put things I used away directly because I want to live in a tidy home.
You can obviously customise all the “Whys” to your liking and choose any habit you want to build.
I would recommend taking a couple of minutes to write those down, so you can reread them whenever your inner Schweinehund is about to take over.
Visualising the end goal, such as a tidy home or the job you really want, is something that can help give you that boost of motivation, too.
2. Prepare for success
When starting a new habit, that behaviour is (obviously) new. It’s not part of our routine yet.
Making implementing new habits a little easier, it is always a good idea to reduce the obstacles to get there.
Obstacles to working out could be:
- Picking out and putting on workout clothes
- Packing the Gym bag and remembering everything we need
- Getting to the Gym/Work-out class
To reduce these obstacles, put out your gym clothes and pack your gym bag the night before, if you plan to work out the next morning.
It seems like a very small thing to do, but it does help to stick to your new habit because it is easier to do, and you are also reminded of said habit once you get up and see your workout clothes and Gym bag all ready to go.
3. Plan for the what if?
When considering changing things in our lives, we often think about how we are going to change in a perfect scenario. We have all the time to plan our meals, go grocery shopping, and cook for 2 hours every night. We are going to work out 4 to 5 times a week and go to bed early every single night.
I’m sorry to burst that bubble, but that is just not attainable. Life is not perfect; there are always going to be things that come in between you and your perfectly set out plans every now and then.
You cannot prevent that from happening!
What you can do, however, is plan for what you are going to do when these things happen.
Deciding what you are going to do in the so-called “cold state”, when you are not in a difficult situation trying to decide what to do, helps to make that decision easier when in the “hot state”, the difficult situation.
“What if” examples:
- When I am sick and cannot exercise, I will take a 15 minute walk around the block 3 days per week (only if you can get out of bed and the house safely, of course!)
- When I really crave something sweet, I will allow myself to have 2 pieces of chocolate. I can only do this twice a week.
- When I really don’t have much time to meal prep or buy groceries, I am allowed to eat at work for two days and figure out my next meals during that time.
- When I cannot motivate myself to study, I will set a small reward for every half hour I get done.
- When my friends ask me to go out, I am allowed to surpass my bedtime max. three times per week for 2 hours.
These are just examples that you can customise to your own needs as much as you would like.
4. Set a limit
When thinking about what we want to change in our lives, a lot of things come to mind, and suddenly, we want to change 15 things right now.
In that moment, we are highly motivated to change, thinking we can do it all at once.
But we can’t.
No one can.
To make sure you stay to your most important changes or new habits, it is important to set a limit.
Three New Year’s Resolutions are plenty for most of us.
I know it feels like not enough, but in three or four weeks’ time, it will feel like a lot, trust me.
And even if you realise after a while that you can take on more than the three goals you chose, it is always better to take on another habit than to have to let one go.
So, start out with max. three and then adjust as you go.
5. Stack your new habits onto old ones.
When starting a new habit, it is easy to forget about it when real life starts again and a million things are on our minds.
To make sure you still stick to your New Year’s resolutions, you can do something called “habit stacking”.
Habit stacking is a method where you link existing habits to new ones, making it easier to remember the new habit.
New Year’s Resolution habit stacking examples:
- I read 10 minutes while having my morning coffee (the morning coffee routine already exists, and now you add reading to it)
- I tidy the kitchen as soon as I am done having dinner (dinner already exists, tidying is new)
- Before I get out of bed in the morning, I list three things I am grateful for (getting up exists, the gratitude practice is new)
As always, you can customise these examples to fit best into your existing routines and the habits you are building.
This post has been all about 5 simple tips on how to make your New Year’s Resolutions last.
I hope this has been helpful and please remember: You deserve all the good things this world has to offer!
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