5 STEPS TO SUCCEED IN YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

As the sun rises on a new year, millions of people make new year resolutions. Most people choose a resolution that will enhance their life in the new year. Matter of fact, the most popular resolutions involve weight loss, exercise, and eating healthy. Although we all have the best of intentions when we make our resolutions; Sadly, 80% of new year resolutions fail by February.

Why do 80% of resolutions fail by February? There are many reasons. We may aspire to change but don’t know what we need to do to make those changes. We may make a resolution requiring a huge amount of change and feel too overwhelmed to keep trying. Studies show that on average it takes 66 days, give or take to form a new habit.

Enough of reasons we fail! Let talk about how we succeed!

A successful resolution is a resolution that has been carefully thought out and planned.

Everyone has goals they want to accomplish and the start of a new year is a great time to tackle those goals. Follow these 5 steps to be successful in your New Year resolution.

1. Set a deadline This date needs to be pre-determined through careful planning. When determining a completion date, keep in mind that you have to give yourself a realistic amount of time to achieve it. EX. If you are training for a marathon and you are not currently a runner, you will need at least 6 months to train. Training for one or two months is not enough time to prepare your body or mind for the challenges you face when running a marathon. Increasing your distance to quickly can also cause injury and fatigue which can have a counter effect of your goal.
2. Break your resolution down into smaller more manageable steps. This, in my opinion, is perhaps the most important step in a new year resolution.  If you are on a run and come to a big hill, it can be very intimidating to look up to the top of that hill, realizing how far and high it is from where you stand. It is much easier to look twenty feet ahead of where you stand to the end of a fence or a tree and upon reaching it, celebrate as you look to another tree ahead. Each mark you pass on the way up the hill will give you more confidence to continue. Once you reach the top of the hill, you will feel great because you have conquered the hill and accomplished your goal. The next time you run up the same hill, you will have more confidence. This is also true for New Year resolutions. If your goal is to eat healthily, and on January 1st you go to the grocery store and buy all healthy food and come home and set out to only eat healthy; on those busy days where you don’t have time to look up a recipe and cook a meal from scratch, you will feel defeated. If The whole week turns out a disaster and you only managed to cook one healthy meal, you will feel discouraged and may throw in the towel and give up on your resolution. Instead, break it up into steps. Make a point to try one new healthy recipe each week for the first month. If the recipe is a success, and you and your family enjoyed it, add it to a binder that will soon become your go-to cookbook made just for you. The second month, you will have some go-to recipes already established allowing yourself to eat healthy on those crazy days while also continuing to grow your binder with new options. Before long, you will have a binder full of recipes that you have tried and like for breakfast lunch and dinner. As you add more healthy meals each week, you are eating more healthy and junk food will soon be a thing of the past.
3. Have an accountability partner This person can be someone with the same resolution as you or someone that you know will encourage you positively helping you to achieve your goal. Perhaps you both want to run a marathon. In that case, you can schedule runs together, or share your Fitbit information with each other checking in to create accountability. Or perhaps your resolution is to eat healthy. Your accountability partner may be a friend of yours that eats a diet that you aspire to eat. In that case, she can give you encouragement through your cravings as well as share recipes she enjoys.
4. You need to have a WHY! This step is also very important. Most of the resolutions that we make challenge us. Some days we may want to quit. Life gets busy and it is easy to put our goals and aspirations to the side because of lack of time or fatigue among many other reasons. You need to have a WHY! You need to write down the real reason you want to accomplish your goal. This reason will be your driving force. It is something you need to carefully think about. A reason like, I want to lose 10lbs to look good for a cruise I’m going on in June is probably not going to be enough to carry you through to a successful New Year resolution. This reason needs to have roots so on those tough days (which you will have) your WHY will keep you on track and encouraged. A reason like, I want to lose weight and eat healthier so that I can be healthy and teach my children to be healthy. That is a solid WHY. We always want what is best for our children and there is no better way to teach your child a behavior than by emulating it yourself.
5. DON’T GIVE UP! Just because you messed up your resolution today, doesn’t mean you give up. Tomorrow is a new day to start fresh. A toddler falls down and gets up many times before they learn to walk. So on those days that prove just too much, take heart and know that not one of us is perfect. We are all made perfectly imperfect and in that comes shortcomings. The important thing is to remember to get back up when we fall down, remember the WHY of your New Year resolution, and try again.

I use this method myself not just for New Year Resolutions, but for other goals I have which include life goals that may take over a year to achieve. To see how I am breaking down my resolution, check out 2021 New Years resolution on the farm or click on the link.

Always remember you are stronger than you think and growing pains are needed to grow. So just know that when life gets tough, that is when we learn and grow the most.

Best of luck to you in 2021 and in all that you do. This year is going to be great!