Make your New Year’s resolutions stick

1st of January is often a time when we are planning changes in our life. New Year seems to be a good moment for a new beginning, thus we decide on resolutions that should bring us long overdue change. It can be a healthier lifestyle, more time with family/friends or changes in our career. Regardless what it is, often we fail in achieving those goals. Let’s see how to make this year’s resolutions stick.  

Prepare 

Let’s start with wider context. On one hand, New Year’s is a great time for new commitments. Calendar works in our favor and as we are straining New Year, we can also start to follow new ideas that are important for us. On the other hand, if 1st of January may be inconvenient for you. Often its holiday period and you may not be motivated for new effort. If that’s the case, go ahead and start your new resolution from a third or fourth week of a year. Still remember to plan it in that way.

There are many reasons, why New Year’s resolutions do not stick. To make sure this year you will succeed it’s good to have some preparation. Few tips below:

1. Focus on what’s important – choose what is important is for you. Ask yourself questions like: Will this change make difference in my life? Is there anything else more important I would like to achieve in this year? Is this change worth an effort? What will I gain?
2. Only one change at the time – change is always difficult and more is changing, it’s more difficult to control it. Focus on one area that is most important for you. If you have more ideas for resolutions, write them down. Nonetheless, try to do one change at the time and once succeeded move to next resolution. 
3. Short term (monthly), then long term (annually) – start with a goal for next year, but then break it down to monthly smaller objectives that need to be met. That allows you to celebrate smaller successes as you progress.
4. Plan ahead – do some research and understand a topic that you want to go after. You can probably find plenty of books or articles about that subject. It can be quitting smoking, regular running/gym, changes in your career or more time with family or friends (time management books) etc.  
5. Anticipate problems – think about all challenges you can face while following your New Year’s resolution. Write them down in a list. For each item try to figure out how you can cope with that issue (one or two sentences will suffice). Add those as comments next to your list. Keep it and look at it each time you face one of those problems. 

Once you are prepared, go ahead and set the resolution you will go after. 

Setting SMART New Year’s resolution

It’s quite common to set goals in SMART format. It’s being taught in business schools, it’s required in many companies. Many people use it in the business area and see value in it. Nonetheless, when it comes to our personal life we tend to forget about this approach. Are we less demanding when it comes to our personal development? Let’s take a look how we can apply SMART approach for New Year’s resolutions:

• Specific – Be very clear what you want to achieve. State your goal so that when reading it after a month or so it would be absolutely clear for you.
• Measurable – Although it makes more sense to use it when it comes to business, it can also be useful in personal life. Examples can be: speak with extended family on weekly basis / run 10 km in 50 minutes / eat 5 healthy meals a day / sleep only 6 hours a day / do not smoke for 60 days in a raw / spend X% less money on monthly basis / get X customers for my new enterprise etc.  
• Achievable – Make sure that you set goals that can be completed. Avoid focusing on something that is outside of your control area (see the article How to be proactive?). Moreover, it’s good to have ambitious goals, but remember to make sure you can get them. An alternative solution could be setting ‘must achieve’ goal at lower level and ‘nice to achieve’ goal at a higher level.
• Relevant – Very much related to the first point from preparation part above. Make sure that your resolution is truly important for you. Question yourself about it. It’s so much easier to work on something that is meaningful for us.
• Time-Bound – it seems that majority of New Year’s resolutions are aimed to be achieved by the end of next year. That makes perfect sense, but don’t treat it as a limitation! If you feel the goal is achievable sooner, then plan it in that way. Moreover setting the only deadline in next 12 months, can make it’s execution as a low priority. Think about any short term (monthly) objectives that will allow achieving this long term goal.

Always try to use above approach when setting your goals. Do not treat New Year’s resolutions as an exception. Make sure that all of SMART components are covered.

How to make New Year’s resolutions stick?

Good planning and goal setting is vital. Still, it’s all about whether we follow new approach or not. It is never easy when it comes to change and this situation is no exception. Below are some tips that can make it easier:

1. Visuals – Write down a key element of your New Year’s resolution. Print it in a nice format and post it on a wall in the visible place (if possible both at work and at home). You can print also smaller format and keep it in your wallet or car. That will ensure you will not forget about your commitment.
2. Rewards – Plan reward system, to celebrate your successes in following new approach. Start with more frequent rewards (daily or weekly) to get initial engagement. Then choose something bigger to celebrate the achievement of the entire goal.  Pick something you really like. Examples can be, sweets, cinema, clothes or better holiday travel as end prize.
3. Accept small failure – In some instances, you will fail, it is part of our human nature. You will smoke just one cigarette, miss gym class or forgot to have a lunch with your friend. Do not let this initial failure to bring down the entire project. Instead, try to learn from it. Think why it happened. Did you smoke a cigarette after drinking a certain type of alcohol? Did you miss a gym due to working late hours? How can you avoid that in future? 
4. Get support from others – Share your New Year’s resolution with your family and friends. Speak about it when you are progressing well and when having some challenges. Ask them directly to support you in your efforts. You will be surprised how motivating their support can be.
5. Write it down and review – finally write down all that is relevant for your New Year’s resolution: what it is (SMART format); how you going to achieve it; what challenges you’ll face and how to address them; Review that on monthly basis and feel free to make adjustments if needed. Visuals will keep you engaged on daily basis. That 15 min monthly reviews will help you to track progress and celebrate results.

Above should make it easier to follow your New Year’s resolution. Still do not be too strict on above approach. Test it and choose what works best for you. Let me know if you came up with something that I did not cover.

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Best

Tom