With the beginning of a New Year comes the unavoidable pressure and/or excitement of resolutions. However, despite its positive image, a resolution can often times become a trap for self-hatred.
Let me paint you a picture: It’s the beginning of the year and you’re ready to finally start going to the gym consistently and eating healthy. You start off strong and keep up your momentum till around midyear where you slowly start going to the gym less and eating McDonalds on the regular. At this point you’re likely feeling like a complete failure for not being able to stick to your resolution. So as a coping mechanism you just say “oh well, I’ll try again next year” and give up. Sound familiar?
I used to do this myself as well until I learned how to properly achieve a long term goal or in this case, a resolution. I personally don’t do resolutions anymore just because I’m always working on myself and so the New Year doesn’t really change that in any way.
But, if you are a person who likes resolutions or even just wants to achieve long term goals, this guide will help you do it. Let’s get into the steps!
**This post contains affiliate links which means I get a very small commission from every sale made. However, this does not compromise my integrity and I genuinely only recommend things I believe in and/or use myself.**
Table of Contents
1) Maximize your time
If you want to incorporate new habits into your life, it means you’re going to need to make time for them. There are two ways to maximize your time in a day:
1) Utilize all your time wisely throughout the day.
There are actually a lot of pockets of time in our day where we can utilize our time to either do our resolution or check off a different task so we have more time later on.
Some examples could be:
- If your resolution is to read more, you could listen to eBooks on your way home from work or as you’re doing absentminded tasks at home
- If your goal is to move more, you could take 10 minutes of your break at work to do some standing yoga
- You could use your time on public transport to do tasks like studying, writing essays or answering emails so when you get home you have more free time and can follow through with your resolution
These are just some examples but there are lots of other ways you can get more time out of your day without really changing how long you’re awake for. This is great in terms of productivity, efficiency, and it means you don’t have to wake up earlier or go to bed later.
However, sometimes these techniques are simply insufficient or impossible with your schedule. In that case, there is another option:
2) Waking up earlier
I know this one kind of sucks but you have to be realistic about whether the previous option will suffice or not. If it doesn’t, then you need to either wake up earlier or go to bed later because that’s the only other way to “make” more time.
Personally I would recommend waking up earlier rather than going to bed later. The reason is doing things at night when we’re already really tired is pretty difficult. Just imagine having to exercise after a long day while your warm bed is calling you. It’s just not gonna happen!
But in the morning we’re much fresher because we’ve just had a mental and physical break. If you’re someone that hates mornings and cannot wake up earlier (like me), there are dozens of products out there to help you out with waking up.
Some general tips for waking up are:
- Don’t hit snooze (it prolongs the torture and puts you in a bad habit of not waking up on time)
- Have your alarm be something you enjoy like your favourite song or nature sounds
- If possible, try making the alarm get gradually louder so that you don’t get spooked out of your sleep
- Do some type of physical movement or drink water right away so you can wake up a bit
- Have something to look forward to at the beginning of the morning to get you excited about getting out of bed (delicious breakfast with a loved one, a new coffee or tea to try out etc)
2) Keeping track of your progress
The next important step to achieving your resolution is keeping track of your progress. Some reasons this is important are:
- It helps you to visually see whether you are improving and going in the right direction
- Keeping track holds you accountable
- It further dedicates you to your goal
- When you see improvement you get motivated and more likely to continue with your resolution
- Keeping track helps you to see any patterns or things that you may be doing wrong/right
- It can act as inspiration if you ever fall off the wagon again with your goal
- Keeps you organized and detail orientated on your resolution which makes you more likely to succeed
So clearly there are a lot of benefits to keeping track of your progress which can be vital in making you succeed. But the next question is… how do you keep track of it?
Well that depends on your goal!
There are many technologies and apps currently out there that you could pick from if you’re doing something more fitness focused. Alternatively, you could buy a journal that matches your resolution and track your progress by hand.
But if you don’t feel like spending money to keep track of your goals, I’ve got you there too. I recently released an all-encompassing wellness journal in which you can track your eating, exercise, your mental health and your sleep.
It also has a habit tracker as well as reflections for every topic previously mentioned to really help you tap into that self-improvement. The best part though is that it’s totally free and all you have to do is sign up below!
Once you do, I’ll send you the pdf and all you have to do is print it. Super effective and super free! Yay!
3) Staying Positive
A big part of achieving our resolutions that we often forget about is staying positive and optimistic about the process. And this can be really hard to do especially if you’re not immediately seeing results.
But if we’re pessimistic about our goal and achieving it, it’s only going to be harder. Personally, I really believe in the power of word and how that can influence your mindset. I also really believe in realistic positivity.
This is an approach to being positive I strongly recommend and find much more obtainable than the stay positive 100% of the time idea we’re often fed.
Even if you think talking to yourself positively is silly, just think about what talking negatively does for you. It literally does nothing aside from set you back. So why not just be silly and fake it till you make it with positive affirmations and self-talk?
Some fun and free ideas for staying positive are:
- Creating a positive playlist for when you’re feeling negative about your resolution
- Having a hype-up friend
- Making a box of positive mantras and reading one when you’re feeling off
- Find a support group for your resolution
- Find positive quotes from the internet, print ‘em, and stick them on your walls or doors or anything you can put them on. I actually have my own little wall of positive quotes in my room that I like looking at every day. I’ve found it to make a positive difference and would really recommend it!
Regardless of how you do it, it’s important to stay positive so you can stay motivated!
4) Rewarding Yourself
Backpacking off positivity, it’s also incredibly important to reward yourself for your hard work. If you’re always harsh on yourself and never reward yourself for your hard work, you’re going to become miserable and inevitably give up on your goal.
Even if you haven’t been reaching your goal as quickly or efficiently as you wanted, who cares? Reward yourself! Because even considering improving yourself is in itself an achievement and should be celebrated.
So reward yourself my friend! It can be whatever you want:
- A cheat meal
- Some nice candles
- The whole Lush bath bomb
- A really nice nap
- A cup of tea
- Sitting on the floor and doing nothing for a while
- Binging a show
- Buying yourself a gift
- Cuddling your pet
- Spending time with loved ones
- Literally ANYTHING!
Personally I really like using my massager while I soak my feet in a little foot bath with essential oils and sea salt. While I do that, I also enjoy putting on a show and eating whatever snack I want.
But it’s totally up to you!
And that’s it! These are the secrets to achieving your New Year’s resolution or any other goal you have in mind. I hope this guide was helpful and good luck kicking your goal in the butt!
All my love,
T