6 ways to make a New Year’s resolution that works!

Happy New Year! Just the sound of those words suggests a new beginning; a chance to start over with a clean slate. I’ve always been a big believer in the power of a New Year’s resolution, and even though many of the people I ask seem to not make resolutions, research consistently shows that most people still do… and yes, some of us even keep our resolutions!

Somewhere between 50% and 60% of us make New Year’s resolutions and, while research seems to vary quite a bit on this one, anywhere from roughly 10% to 40% claim to have kept their resolutions for at least one year. Even if we go with the low end of both those ranges, that means about 5% of the population are seeing some positive long-term changes in their lives due to their having made a resolution at the start of the year. Maybe not a lot, but that adds up to millions of people with improved lives.

Can you get yourself into that group? Absolutely! My experience though has been that, like most things in life, a successful New Year’s resolution is less about willpower and more about planning. I offer talks and even a full seminar on how companies and individuals can improve their chances of successfully making positive changes, but to keep this post brief, let’s look at just a few ways you can plan — and keep — your resolutions.

1. Be Specific

Vague resolutions like “Lose weight” or “Spend less time watching TV” are much more prone to failure than specific goals like “Lose 2 lbs. per week until I have lost 20 lbs.” or “Spend no more than one hour a day watching TV or online videos.” Notice the “or online videos” in that last example? We can sometimes allow ourselves to cheat without feeling guilty by finding substitutions that are no better than the original problem. If you’re serious about change, give some thought ahead of time to how you might try to cheat yourself, and seal those doors shut.

2. Give Yourself a Reasonable Chance

High standards are wonderful. Yes, they sometimes get a bad rap these days for causing guilt and pressure but seriously, high standards also spur us to be more productive at work, more loving as spouses, and more awesome as parents. The key is to keep your standards high but attainable. If you’ve never jogged, telling yourself you’re going to start running five miles a day is not likely to end well. Instead, set reasonable targets that challenge but do not overwhelm you. You may even find it helpful to staircase your goals. “Walk for 10 minutes three times a week in January, and then on February 1, start running for the same amount of time” gives you a much more reasonable chance of success.

3. Set Time Slots and Target Dates

Similar to the vague resolutions mentioned above, goals that have no timeline attached to them are little more than wishful thinking or daydreams. Resolve to “spend every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evening and all day Sunday with the family” rather than just saying you will “spend more time with the family.” Without a time slot, you can keep thinking you’ll get to it later, whereas specific times marked in your calendar will remind you at 6:00 pm right from your very first Tuesday that you need to get with your family. Time slots and target dates make it easier to recognize when you’re running into trouble, and also easier to see and get a spark from each success along the way.

4. Take Baby Steps

Can you really give up chocolate for a year? Can you actually stop smoking? Forever??? One of the things holding us back from making our biggest changes is the thought that “I’ll never be able to stick to it and I don’t want to set myself up for failure.” Fair deal. Some challenges are particular hard, and we each have our own areas of personal battle. Chances are good you can instantly think of one or two things you’d most like to change about yourself, but don’t think you could make the change stick. For those, how about a New Month’s resolution, or even a New Day’s resolution? Maybe you don’t think you could give up all sweets for a year, but do you realistically think you could do it for at least a month, or even just for today? Getting a small success can often help build confidence, allowing us to try it again the next day or month, and eventually even stretch it out to a year or lifetime.

Several Novembers ago, as I was snacking on some leftover Halloween candy, I decided I really needed to cut back on the amount of chocolate I was taking in. I didn’t think I could just stop entirely, so I told myself to go for it over the next few weeks, until the end of November. I stuck with that commitment, and my success prompted me to make a commitment on December 1 that I would keep doing so until December 20, allowing myself a chance to then enjoy some treats once chocolate would start appearing everywhere over the Christmas season. Again, I kept that commitment, and found it was a boost to know I would finally get some chocolate over Christmas. More significantly though, those two months of successes gave me the confidence to make — and keep! — a New Year’s resolution on January 1 to not eat any more chocolate until December 20 of the coming year. Sometimes baby steps, and scheduled breaks here and there, can take the “un” out of “unattainable.”

5. Find the Supports You Need

For some people and companies, this one can make a huge difference. We are not all blessed with people around us who believe in or support our best efforts. Your family or co-workers may even scoff at your efforts to improve. A negative environment always makes change so much harder. Don’t give up. Consider hiring a coach or consultant to get you through the tough times. If you or your team have goals in the areas of communications or training, talk to me! Or, if you’re looking for a personal trainer to help you with your fitness goals, I can recommend someone who has been getting great results with her clients.

There are also endless resources online, whether it’s to just formalize a to-do list or actually build a team to support you. Websites such as Day Zero and Habitforge along with oodles of other websites and apps not only increase your chances of success, but also allow you to lend your support to other people on their own journeys. We often hear about the downside of people spending time online or on their smartphones. Here’s your chance to prove that there is an upside too!

6. Embrace Failure as Part of Your Success

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, things just don’t go the way we want. If you find yourself with flagging resolve or even broken commitments, don’t throw in the towel! There is still much you can do to come out victorious at the end. I’ll say more about this in an upcoming post, but for now, if you do find yourself slipping, just give yourself room to pick up and start again. Remind yourself that falling off the horse is always the first step in getting back on. You got this!

If you’ve been smoking a pack a day for years, much better to get to the end of this year and proudly say you only had ten cigarettes all year, than to say you tried again but never even got through a month (or day) before you went back to smoking. Just because you slipped once or twice or ten times does not mean you can’t do this. It just means it’s hard. You have a chance to start again. Take it!

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Do any of these tips sounds like they can help you? What are your goals for the coming year or month or day? What has been your New Year’s resolution experience? Please leave your comments. And in all your efforts to change, best wishes!

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(Originally published on www.lornepike.com)

Thanks for reading. I am a communications consultant and speaker helping companies get the most from social media, website design, and SEO. I also speak on effective corporate and interpersonal communications and media relations. Take a look at my other LinkedIn articles or my website and let me know how I can help you with your next project!