Sarahritchie17 Did you know that around 80% of people fail to achieve their New Years Resolutions?
I just heard this stat recently, and sure enough, U.S. News and World Report as well as a study from the University of Scranton both affirm it.
The past two years, I’ve used a new process for making my resolutions, and maybe it can help you too. Here’s what I do:
- 12 Habits
At the end of 2017, I decided to make myself a vision board. (A post all about vision-boarding coming soon.) On my vision board, I wanted to put some of the goals I had for myself in the upcoming year. I started to brainstorm and came up with about 10 habits that I wanted to make or break in 2018. They included things like stop cracking my knuckles, wake up to my first alarm, and drink 64 oz of water every day, amongst others. In 2019, I had a couple larger goals mixed in like running a 15K.
2. Organize by Month
Once I had about 10 goals for myself, I broke the larger ones in half. For my 15K, I broke it into “train for 15K” and “run 15K.” Then I started assigning my goals to months. I had already signed up for a 15K scheduled for February, so January’s resolution was to train for the race; February’s resolution was to run it. To achieve it, I wrote a 2-month training plan and stuck to it. Another goal I had was to read 12 books in the year, so March’s resolution was to have 3 books read by then to be on track towards that one. Be smart about how you’re scheduling your resolutions, and think about big things already scheduled for the year. For example, this past year, I knew I was moving in late June, so I put my resolution to clean out my closet in June.
3. Commit 30 Days
Here’s why it’s so important to focus a whole month towards one goal. One of my swim coaches once told me that if you stick to something for 40 days, it becomes a habit. Since 40 days is a weird amount of time to me, I figured that 31 days would have nearly the same effect, and it did! If you can commit to doing something every day for 30 days, it gets a whole lot easier to continue doing that thing permanently. Rachel Hollis preaches a similar theory about giving things up. She used to constantly crave Diet Coke and tried giving it up for just one month and succeeded in giving up her craving from then on too. It’s much easier to face your goals and bad habits when you’re looking at just one month instead of the whole year.
4. Post it Somewhere You Look Everyday
For me this means on a vision board in my bedroom. Another way I’ve read is to put post-it notes on your bathroom mirror or desk. You have to write your goals down, and you have to look at them every day. Period. It’s a simple thing to do, but it makes all the difference.
5. Start Early
If you already have a vague idea of what goals you want to achieve in 2020 and haven’t started working towards them, you need to start now. January 1st is just a day of the year, and if you put all the pressure on yourself to start that day, you’ll be kicking yourself when life happens and you’re too exhausted to do anything on January 5th. Before the new year, start working your resolutions into your everyday life to see how they fit and what you can really take on in the New Year. For example, one of my goals for 2020 is to get better at keeping in touch. I’ve started calling old friends randomly and walking to work a few days a week to build the time into my schedule. Take your 2020 resolutions on a test drive to make sure they’re realistic before you commit to them.
I hope these tips work for you as well as they have for me. I am still working on what my 12 resolutions for this year will be, but I’ll keep you updated throughout the year with how I’m doing. I hope you’ll share some of yours with me too.
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Cheers!
Sarah
