New Year’s Resolutions: How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

A New Year is here! Now is the time to think about all of the amazing things you want to create in 2019.

Setting goals for the New Year are easy to do, but following through with them is another story altogether. Nearly half of us are making New Year's resolutions, but less than 10 percent of us are actually keeping them.

The New Year isn't about making life-changing transformations. Rather, it's about committing to integrating healthy habits into your everyday life.

Are you ready to learn 5 tips to make your New Year's resolutions stick?

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Are you ready to create New Year's resolutions for a better future?

Before you even think about what you want your resolutions to be, I encourage you to first acknowledge the experiences and lessons that have brought you to where you are today.

What were the most important lessons you learned in 2018?
How did you grow and evolve yourself in 2018?
What are some of your favorite memories from 2018?
How will 2019 be different from last year?

Every year is a new opportunity to become more. Instead of getting overwhelmed about all of the things that you want to change in 2019, I encourage you to just be receptive to change and open to new possibilities.

A big reason why so many people fail to follow through with their goals is that they don't go into the process with the right mindset. When they don't see progress fast enough, they quit. In my experience working with people, it appears that lack of willpower, motivation, and drive are some of the most common barriers to success.

If you convince yourself that you can't do something, eventually you will give up altogether.

In order to prevent this from happening, I encourage you to commit to resolutions that move you towards something you desire, and not away from something that you no longer want. Dr. Ellen Langer, a professor of psychology at Harvard University says that “Many people fail at their New Year’s resolutions because they don’t understand the reasons behind why they want to change.”

Take a moment and consider why you haven't lost the weight, started your online business, spent more time with family, or booked that holiday that you've been dreaming of forever. Your mind has probably come up with a million and one reasons why you haven't – too tired, too busy, too sick, etc. The list goes on and on. Whatever the excuse may be, now is the time to take responsibility for your life and make some real changes. Without a solid strategy in place for making your resolutions stick, it's easy to feel frustrated.

Let's explore 5 tips that will help keep you motivated and on track with your goals.

1. Set SMART Goals

The fact of the matter is that you won't improve your life if you don't set goals. The reason why I have been able to achieve so much success in life is that I've learned how to master the goal-setting process. A lot of people struggle to achieve their goals because they lack clarity about how to set goals in the first place.

They either set too many goals or their goals are completely unrealistic to achieve. The end result is something called false hope syndrome, which is characterized by a person’s unrealistic expectations about the likely speed, amount, ease and consequences of changing their behavior. The best way to prevent this from happening is to make your goals SMART. This is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. Let's break down what this looks like.

Specific – get clear about what it is that you want to achieve and why it's important to you.
Measurable – think about how you will measure and track your progress so that you stay motivated.
Attainable – choose a goal that is realistic to achieve based on your current situation.
Relevant – choose a goal that is relevant to your life.
Time-bound – make sure that you set a deadline for when you want your goal to be achieved by.

2. Create A Morning Ritual

A New Year is a great time to leave old habits behind. However, you cannot expect to change habits that you've been practicing for years, overnight. Did you know that forty percent of your behaviors are routinized, meaning that you do them unconsciously? This is why bad habits are so hard to break. They are deeply wired into your brain.

One of the best ways to make a resolution stick is to create a morning ritual where you engage in healthy habits on a consistent basis. A morning ritual has the power to become one of your greatest allies on the journey to achieving your goals.

In her best-selling book, Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits — to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life, Gretchen Rubin says that “If there’s something you want to do consistently in your life – like New Year resolutions – habits can make the wear and tear on following through so much easier. They get us out of the tiresome business of making decisions and using our self-control.”

Staying committed to an empowering morning ritual will help you develop the self-discipline, good habits, and mindset that you will need to achieve your goals. Taking the time to nurture your mind, body, and soul first thing in the morning sets you up for success.

3. Get An Accountability Buddy

Having an accountability buddy is a cost-effective and extremely effective way of staying on top of your goals. Find somebody that you can trust who is looking for accountability in return. Support one another. You can do this by committing to meeting up or talking on the phone once per week or more if you are keen to make massive shifts in your life.

During your call, share 1-2 things that you want to accomplish in one or more areas of life. It's easy to let yourself down, but nobody wants to let someone else down. I think we can all agree that it's a horrible feeling, on top of the fact that it's a credibility killer.

The moment that someone is personally invested in you, you are no longer alone in your desire to succeed at something. At the end of the day, you will be more likely to take action if someone is tracking your goals and cheering you on along the way.

4. Reward Yourself For Small Wins

A lot of people tend to focus on the end game rather than enjoying the small steps that help them get to where they want to go. Your big goals aren’t going to happen overnight. This is why you need to learn how to fall in love with the process of becoming successful.

When is the last time that you celebrated yourself for a job well done? I don't think that people praise themselves enough. In our efforts to be the best, we can be so hard on ourselves in the process. Here's the thing… if you don't give yourself credit for the small wins that you make, how do you expect to stay motivated when things don't go your way?

Don't wait for the massive win to call yourself a winner. Rather, start paying attention to all the small wins that you make along the way. In the end, those are the ones that matter the most. I encourage you to set aside time every single week to reflect upon your recent achievements.

Celebrate yourself every single day. Ask yourself questions like, “What things did I do well?” or “What actions did I take that have helped me get one step closer to achieving my goals? These realizations will give you the confidence that you need to keep moving forward in the direction of your dreams.

5. Practice Self-Compassion

If you fall short on your goals, don't be hard on yourself. Instead, practice self-compassion. Nobody said that you need to be perfect. Too many people take the “all or nothing” approach when it comes to New Year's resolutions. They fixate on all of the things that they aren't doing right.

If this is you, STOP. Messing up is a part of the process of change. More importantly, it's an integral part of being human. All that matters is that you don't give up. In the words of Kristin Neff, “Unlike self-criticism, which asks if you're good enough, self-compassion asks, What's good for you?”

Not only is it a New Year, but it's also a new you.

Now is the time to transform your state, to improve different areas of your life, and to become the best possible version of yourself. A New Year should bring a feeling of freedom from all of the things that no longer serve you. Step into today with excitement and anticipation for all of the amazing things that are to come. This is your year. Make it count.