Last Updated on December 20, 2020 by Holly
Happy New Year!
As we are winding down another year and getting ready to start another, it has had me thinking about New Year’s resolutions and goals for the upcoming year.
There’s just something about the start of a new year. For me, it feels like a chance for a start fresh.
I must not be alone, 60% of people polled say they plan on making New Year’s Resolutions too.
Unfortunately, only 8% will actually achieve their goal.
Top 5 New Years Resolutions
Year over year, these are the New Year’s resolutions that seem to be the most popular, with self-care getting a stronger showing year after year.
- Exercise Regularly
- Manage Weight
- Focus on Saving or Budgeting
- Practice Self-Care
- Learn a New Hobby
How to Make New Year’s Resolutions Stick
So how do we make New Year’s resolutions that stick?
How do we go about being apart of the 8% the see their goal realized?
In a nutshell: to be the most successful at realizing any goal- including New Year’s resolutions- is reframing the language we use and how we see our goal, making the goals realistic and attainable, and forgiving ourselves-giving ourselves some grace- when we don’t meet the goal in the time frame we expected or we don’t meet every bench mark we’ve set.
1. Attainable
The consensus seems to be that only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions actually keep them. 8% is not very many people!
If we want to be one of the 8% that keep our New Year’s resolutions, a proven trick is to keep our goals attainable.
When we set realistic, attainable goals for ourselves we are more likely to be able to reach the goal, which raises our self-esteem helping us feel empowered.
For example: if we wanted to loose weight, breaking down the goal into attainable chunks would help us get there. Such as, losing 5 pounds in two months instead losing 5 pounds in one week.
2. Baby Steps
We can keep our goals attainable by breaking them into baby steps with a plan.
Say you are like 32% of Americans in 2017 who had the goal of saving more and spending less.
Try breaking the goal down into baby steps.
For instance, if you have a Starbucks habit that you are wanting to kick in order to save more money.
Create a plan complete with the baby steps.
Keep yourself on track by writing your plan-or type- it out.
Goal, make sure you have an end result you are working toward. Having a goal will help you keep your eye on the prize.
Place it where you can see it to keep yourself accountable.
For our Starbuck habit modification with the goal of saving money, maybe your baby steps are:
Prep:
How much do I spend on 5 lattes a week? $2.95 x 5= $14.75
How much will I be saving by only buying 3 a week, then 2 a week, then 1 latte a week?
How can I help my self stick to budgeting for the 3 lattes a week? I can put $8.85 ($2.95x 3) on a prepaid Starbucks gift card to help me not go over my new limit.
What do I do with the money I am saving? I can take the money I did not spend on lattes that week, and move that amount over to my saving account. I will do this every Friday (date of your choosing).
For week 1: Instead of buying 5 lattes a week purchase 3. Making those purchases on Monday, Tuesday, Friday.
Friday, move saved $$ over to savings account.
Week 2: Instead of 3 lattes a week, go down to two days a week. Monday to start the week and Friday to end the week.
Friday, move saved $$ over to savings account.
Week 3: One latte a week.
Friday, move saved $$ over to savings account. Evaluate goal did we reach it?
3. Approach Oriented Language
Recent research suggests that how we phrase our New Year’s resolutions can have an effect on how likely we are to reach our goal.
A Swedish research team found when people structure their New Year’s resolutions in an approach type language , the participants were 59% more likely to achieve their goals.
Approach language would be instead of saying, ” I will stop eating candy everyday”, you would reframe it more positively: “I am going to eat fruit instead of candy everyday.”
Approach language is about “going”, “can”, and “start”, as opposed to “can’t”, “won’t”, and “stop”.
4. Accountability
Having a way to stay accountable can help make it more likely that you will have success with your New Year’s resolution.
Having a person as an “accountability partner” can increase your likelihood of reaching your goal by 65%!
However, holding yourself accountable can come in several different forms. The important part is that you are comfortable with it and you will use it.
- You could put bench marks on a calendar
- Tell someone and both of you cheer each other on toward your goals
- Join a group Facebook, real life, or other
- Use an app
- Journaling
What does accountability look like to you? What style are you comfortable with?
5. Timely Goal
Did you know it can take about 66 days of consistency to form a new habit?
This is important to consider when you are creating your goal- end results- and the baby steps you will take to get there.
Motivation
It can be easy to get discouraged with our progress toward our New Year’s resolutions, long before our resolution becomes a habit.
In order to stay motivated researchers have found that putting in place “mini goals” on our way to our bigger result can help us continue to stay motivated.
The “mini goals” work to show us that our bigger goal is attainable, therefore helping us to stay motivated.
As we get closer to the achievemnet of our goal or New Year’s resolution the research team found it was important to shift away from the small goals and start to transition to focusing on our end goal.
People that were able to use mini goals and then focus on the bigger goal- when the time was right for them- were 57% more likely to reach their goals!
For instance, your goal is to become vegetarian.
As you are working toward your goal of transitioning from carnivore to vegetarian, what is end date that you believe is reasonable to achieve this goal?
1 month.
What are the baby steps you will be taking to get there in 30days? What mini goals will you set?
Eat a larger helping of fruits and veggies at every meal.
mini goal/ baby step: 3 days a week go to Pinterest, find 3 non-meat focused meals to cook.
If I make 3 vegetarian meals that week, I will reward myself with a takeout from a vegetarian restaurant.
Second week: Continue eating more vegetable than meat during my blended meals.
Cook vegetarian only meals 5 days a week.
Goal met for week two, reward myself with cook book devoted to easy vegetarian lunches.
Big Goal: One month total vegetarian.
Big Reward: Feeling healthier and more aligned with my values.
Also reward myself with a vegetarian cookbook I have really wanted and celebratory vegetarian meal at a vegetarian restaurant I have wanted to try.
What is the goal that you are hoping to accomplish with your New Year’s resolution?
6. Forgiveness, Grace
Do yourself a favor, do not bully yourself.
If you don’t meet every goal, hit every baby step, do not throw in the towel.
Reframe it, by re-evaluating how you are trying to achieve your goal, tackle your baby steps, or stay on track. What can be done to help you keep working on your goal?
There will always be set backs when working toward something, it is important that we see them as learning oppurtunities as opposed to failures.
When we see them as failures, a “to hell with it” mentality kicks in. Researchers looking into over eating and the ability to stick with a diets, found that when people ate past their limit, or ate things that went against their “diet”, they essentially threw in the towel and mentally said “to hell with it” an continued over indulging.
When this happened, the participants start to build a negative script in their head making it less likely that they will continue with their “diet” or any diet in the future.
However, reframing with a forgiving, growth mindset can actually set us up to get back to the business of achieving our goals complete with the knowledge of having learned more about ourselves.
Making a New Year’s Resolution
I’ve read some good New Year’s Resolutions lately: like traveling more, saying Yes, saying No, becoming more organized, making more time for oneself, write a book.
These unique resolutions inspired me to start thinking about making my own.
This year I’ve decided on some quirky resolutions and traditional ones.
- Use my crock pot more
- Journal consistently every morning- I already do it most mornings.
- Paydown my student debt by finding a way to add a little extra to monthly payment
- Become more organized
- Lose a little weight
- Make my blog something that helps people and enriches their lives.
Now I just have to do the due diligence of following the advice I gave in the post and get to work toward achieving my New Year’s goals.
What are your New Year’s Resolutions? Why did you choose them? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. 🙂
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