Make the Most of New Years Resolutions
By: Amanda Taylor
Tags: Self-awareness, Self Improvement, 2021, New Year Resolution, Self Care

Lots of people set new year’s resolutions, and many make realistic goals. Yet, almost every year, people are still finding themselves unable to keep up the motivation. You miss one day, which turns into a week, which turns into a month, and so on. Repeated failure makes us lose confidence. Why would you want to continue something that you’re not succeeding in? It makes sense.

Many have the false belief that in order to achieve big changes in your life, you have to set big goals as well. While most people do set realistic goals, most of these goals are long term instead of short term. Often, people only focus on obtaining results rather than acknowledging the entire process. When you say, “I’m gonna lose 10 pounds by this certain day, at this certain time, for this certain reason”, but you have no game plan as to how you’re trying to accomplish this goal… that might complicate things.

What I’ve found is that, instead of making yourself workout every single day, have a minimum (short-term) goal set for yourself. For example, setting a goal of working out at least three times a week, no matter the day, as opposed to working out every day and occasionally allowing yourself a rest day can be more effective. That way if you go over the minimal goal you set, you’ll feel even better because you did more than you initially planned.

It’s common sense to know that you can’t always achieve all things easily on the first try, and if you were to talk to a friend about that, the answer would be clear. It’s much easier to determine the rational option when the situation is from an outside perspective. However, when the perspective changes, and it’s on ourselves, our thoughts and emotions can often cloud our judgment.

Approaching situations the way you would to a friend, is a good way to catch yourself when you’re not always thinking clearly…

One of the most important questions to ask yourself when writing resolutions is, “What’s your reasoning for wanting to achieve your goals?”

Why are you trying to lose weight? Why do you want to quit your job? Why do you want to change your style?

For the most part, the answer to these questions should be, “I want to make myself happy”

Resolutions are often negatively focused, for example, you want to get rid of something rather than gain something.

With social pressure, it is often difficult separating the thoughts: Do I want to change this to fit in with a certain group of people, or am I doing this because it will make me feel good? Pinpointing the reasons you are doing something, and making mental notes of it is important.

With the start of 2020, no one expected the year to turn out the way it did. And going into this new year, we can’t just expect things to automatically return to normal (even though we all wish we could).

Instead of stressing over the things in life you can’t change, let’s try and do the opposite. Let’s try and improve things that we have control over. Obviously, this is easier said than done. Everyone’s situations are different and no one can or should be expected to be the same as another person. But I think one thing we can collectively work on always, is improving your mental health.

Ultimately, the one person you will always have in your life is yourself, and you should try and do everything you can to live your life the way YOU want.

Alright, so to summarize. When writing your resolutions you should…