Making Resolutions Happen
Priti Agarwal
Regional Mentor, Road Safety @ Young Indians CII / Founder, The Catalyst
“My resolution is to quit smoking”, said a friend of mine when I asked her about her 2020 new year resolution. “I thought that one was for last year”, I said. “Well….”, she said as she shrugged.
Story of our lives! How many of us have the same resolutions for 2020 as we did for 2019? Why are we missing the mark?
“I don’t keep resolutions anymore coz I don’t want to set myself up for failure”, said another friend of mine when I asked him about his new year resolution.
Are you someone who has given up on resolutions too?
Well, I have a few tips which might help keep resolutions and gain confidence in the process. Here goes –
1. The power of ONE – Who said we need 3 or 5 resolutions every year? One powerful resolution that makes a difference in your life is good enough. Choose one resolution, focus hard and make sure you keep it.
2. Choose the right ONE – Choose your resolution with care – I like to look at two parameters – the level of challenge and the level of significance. Don’t make your resolution too challenging, but make sure the level of challenge keeps you engaged. Also, make sure keeping the resolution is important to you. Find the sweet spot between challenge and significance.
3. ACTION PLANS help – I like to break my one big resolution in to smaller tasks and have a plan that does not make it look too daunting. This makes me keep track and gives me a feeling of empowerment.
4. Make it FUN – The entire journey of keeping your resolutions has to be fun. Don’t make it too serious and drab. Design a little vision board around your resolution, reward yourself for every little success, make a little jingle about it – basically, make it fun to work towards your resolution.
5. Anticipate PROBLEMS and prepare for them – It’s not going to be a smooth ride to stick to a challenging ask for a whole year, be rest assured that you will have your set of bad days and lows. Prepare for those. Have a bunch of friends and well-wishers to whom you announce your resolution and make sure they hold you accountable and support you.
Have you been successful at keeping resolutions? What are your tips to make sure resolutions happen?