It’s now deep into February and you may have already decided to give up on your New Year’s Resolutions. However, it is exactly at this point in time that you can turn a potential failure to stick to your choices into a positive change in your life. Many people fail at keeping their resolutions simply because they make poor decisions in setting these resolutions and set themselves up for failure. Try these simple steps to get back on track; don’t abandon your goals, break them down into more manageable pieces.
- The Resolution Review
So you have had almost two months to start work on your resolution and you have failed to even start. Most often resolutions are abandoned simply because we make them “too big” and then cannot decide how, when or where to start. It may be time to truly reflect on your resolution and maybe review it. If you set a goal so unfathomable in a 1 year period, this is your chance to set a realistic goal. If the goal is realistic in a year timeframe, now is the time to break it down into monthly goals.
- Make them Bite Size
Take your monster resolution and break it down into more manageable steps. We often look at large goals, get overwhelmed by what we promised ourselves to do and get depressed when we are not making enough progress. By breaking this one monster goal down into 12 monthly goals you can start by tackling a small goal and reward yourself when you achieve this more manageable goal.
- Write it Down
By writing your goals down on paper, in your journal or even better on a social media platform, you are essentially providing a hard and fast goal. It provides a much more “set in stone” goal that you can continually keep reminding yourself of. In a positive way, keep looking at your goal and reaffirming your aspirations by achieving results on a daily and monthly basis.
- Forget about the End
It sounds terrible, but in reality makes more sense to your sense of accomplishment. Try not to look at the actual end-goal, especially if you are easily discouraged. Tackle your daily, weekly and monthly goals without putting pressure on yourself to reach the year-end goal. For example, if you wanted to lose 100 pounds, and only lose 98 pounds by the end of the year; it is still an amazing achievement.
By worrying about the daily activities needed to get to the end result, you will actually be doing more to advance your goals than worrying about the end result without putting in the work on a daily basis. If you look to your next weight-loss or healthy work out goal it will be achievable in a positive way.
- Treat Yourself
When you achieve a daily, weekly or monthly goal, start rewarding yourself, but remember to keep them in proportion. If you worked out for 30 minutes and kept to your dietary plan, reward yourself with 2 cookies or 1 scoop of sorbet, not a tub of ice cream. All your rewards need to be focused and measured, but you absolutely need to reward good results. At the end of a month, losing 10 pounds or reaching a goal for a 5k run, get a massage.
By planning out your route, getting effective support from the people you love, breaking down your resolution into bite size pieces and rewarding yourself, you can get back on track to achieving your New Year’s Resolutions.
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