Do Not Forget This When Setting Your New Year’s Resolution
By: Shruthi Sundaram
Tags: Resolutions, Advice, Personal Development, Self, Life

A question that most people never consider is, “What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?” — Mark Mason in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

As we near the end of the year, we find so many of us starting out on our new year’s resolutions. A new year brings a new start and a fresh page. It is the best time to eliminate bad habits and start something you always wanted to do.

But did you know that only 8% of people, achieve their New Year’s resolutions? Most of our new year’s resolutions look like this:

Lose weight Earn more money Buy X, Y, Z Find your passion Become a writer

…you get the point.

There might be so many different reasons for people not keeping up with their resolutions, like it being too many, or too unrealistic. But I am not going to talk about all those points in this article. I am going to focus on the one-step which a lot of us fail to do.

Disclaimer: This will only work when you set realistic expectations and resolutions.

You focus only on the goal and not the path.

This is the mistake that most of us do. For e.g., I keep a resolution this year, that I want to lose 20 kgs by the end of 2021. I am only focusing on the goal now. But what am I going to do for it? Am I ready to undergo the rigorous workouts, or controlling my intake, which is required for losing weight?

Most of us stop pursuing our resolutions because we do not see immediate results. Or, we only realize the reality aspect of the goal after we start pursuing it. All we set is this one big goal, a target that we have to reach.

How many of us decided the path we are willing to take?

1. Break the goal into smaller chunks

Again let me take the example of losing 20 kgs next year. So approximately, I would need to lose 1.67 kgs a month. This sounds less daunting than my earlier resolution, right? Because it is a smaller number.

Now the goal sounds realistic and more doable. One advantage of this method is that you stop procrastinating the effort. You stop doing stupid things like losing the same weight in 6 months using these “lose weight fast” methods.

Also, if I do meet my monthly/weekly goals, it would motivate me to pursue it further.

2. Next, what are you ready to do to achieve the goal?

I can fool myself by telling myself that I am never going to eat junk in my life. And I am going to work out every single day. But then, I will be the stupidest person in the world. Because I know it is impossible!!

Write down what you can and what you cannot do. These were some questions I wrote for myself

Can you walk X number of steps per week? Yes

Can you eat junk only on Sundays? Yes

Can you go to gym Y times a week? No (because I get claustrophobic there)

Deciding what you can and what you cannot do early on, will greatly reduce the chances of you stopping the process in between. Because you can always tell yourself that it was you who decided this. Again, the most important part of this task is to ask yourself and set a realistic list of what your boundaries are.

3. What are you going to do to achieve smaller goals?

Okay, now that you have decided your smaller goals, and what you can let go for them, it is time for you to decide what you are going to do every day for achieving the goal.

For e.g. I order food from outside, when 1) I do not know what to cook or I am too lazy or/and 2) When required groceries are not available at home. I know this. So what do I do to reduce my eating outside?

Set a weekly calendar to go out and buy groceries. I usually buy them when something gets over at home.

Set time aside on weekends for deciding what to cook throughout the week. So that I do not spend time thinking about what to cook during weekdays, and end up buying food from outside.

Allotting a time for these activities in my calendar makes my resolution more realistic. You can also have other small tips and techniques for fulfilling your goal. For e.g., I am planning to complete the preparation part in bulk (once in 2 days) so that I would not feel lazy to cook later.

Tip: Keep a resolution journal to track your progress. When you write down what you have done and what you have not, things will become much more clear to you.