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January 3, 2018
New Year’s Resolutions: How to Make Yours Stick in 2018
I hate to break it to you but upwards of 50% of “New Year’s Resolutions” fail, and more often than not, don’t make it past January. You might have experience with this. You set a goal for the new year, and then life comes in and takes over all your good intentions. We definitely get it! But no matter what your Resolution is, here are some tips to make this year’s goals stick!
Your goals should be smart – but how do you know if your goals are the right goals for you? One easy way to test is to use the acronym SMART. While this acronym was first coined in 1981, it’s still useful in setting and keeping your resolutions!
- Specific: Your resolution should be absolutely clear! For example: Saying “I want to travel” is not as clear as saying “I want to travel to 3 new locations this year”.
- Measurable: This may seem obvious if your goal is weight loss or fitness related, but tracking your behaviors in a journal, your phone, or in an app can reinforce your progress.
- Achievable: This doesn’t mean you can’t have big goals! But it is easy to get frustrated when your steps are too big or too fast. It can leave you feeling frustrated or worse! Break your big goals into smaller, more manageable steps.
- Relevant: Does this goal matter to you – or are you making it because “it’s that time of the year”? Goals that seek to really change your way of thinking for the better and change the way your life runs on a day to day basis have a better chance of making it past the 30-day mark.
- Time Bound: Timelines make the world go round and an achievable timeline can make reaching your goal a little bit easier. Not only does it allow you to create a step by step breakdown of the smaller goals making up the larger one.