Most people make new year’s resolutions that give them a goal to hit by next year. January is typically the most active season for people looking to get on the right track with their resolutions. Unfortunately, many people quit their resolutions by February because they don’t make the necessary lifestyle changes to follow through.
To succeed, you need to make changes in your life. For example, you can’t just make a resolution to lose weight without having a plan that you’ll stick to every single day. You’ll need to incorporate new habits into your lifestyle so you can reach your goals. Here’s how you can turn your resolutions into lifestyle changes.
Be Organized
New Year’s resolutions are just wishes until you turn them into actual goals by making a plan. Being organized with planners allows you to keep track of your progress. For example, if you want to lose weight, you can use a fitness planner or calorie tracking planner where you’ll list your weight and the food you ate in a day.
Your planner can quickly get cluttered depending on how many resolutions you have. Consider getting sticky note tabs and keeping different sections for each resolution to keep your planner organized.
If you prefer to keep everything digital, you can keep one planner on your cell phone or use different apps for each resolution.
Make an Action Plan
Being organized can help you separate your goals from each other so you can prioritize them, but you can’t accomplish your goals without planning them well. The first thing you write in your planner should be your plan for how you’ll accomplish your resolutions. For example, if you want to improve your hair health and reduce hair loss, you’ll need to have an action plan complete with hair loss treatment products, a hair washing schedule, and a plan to visit a dermatologist.
Having an action plan will allow you to feel accomplished every day so you don’t give up on your resolution if you don’t see immediate progress.
Consider Your Food
Most New Year’s resolutions revolve around health, which means that healthy eating is necessary. Even if your resolution doesn’t directly involve losing weight, eating better, or exercising, you’ll need to eat well to reach your goals. Suppose you have a goal to read more every day. In that case, you should consider how your diet will impact your ability to accomplish your goals. Eating well will keep you feeling energized while eating poorly can make you feel lethargic, which can prevent you from getting your reading done.
Be Active
Improving your physical health through fitness can be a new year’s resolution of its own, but fitness can also help you keep yourself on track with all of your resolutions. Being active increases your energy levels and helps you sleep better at night, both of which are necessary for helping you achieve any goals.
You should also keep your mind active to help you stay sharp throughout the year. Puzzles and brain games will improve your memory and keep your brain fit so you can focus on keeping your resolutions.
Understand Current Habits
Lifestyle changes are all about replacing old habits with new ones, but you should first understand why you haven’t made these changes before. For example, if you want to exercise every day, ask yourself why you haven’t already started.
You can write a list of all the reasons why you believe you haven’t already started these healthy habits. You might find that it’s not the exercise you’re trying to avoid but the trip to and from the gym with a shower in between. While working out at the gym might take 30 minutes, getting there and getting home might take even longer depending on where you live.
If this is the case, you could start working out at home instead of driving to and from the gym to save time.
Once you learn what’s holding you back, you can find ways to achieve your goals.
Reward Yourself
If you want to create new healthy habits for your lifestyle to achieve your resolution goals, you’ll need to implement a rewards-based system that motivates you to continue to stay on the right track. You can reward yourself however you like as long as it fits with your goals. For example, if you’re trying to lose weight, you should avoid rewards that can hinder your success, such as sweets. Instead, you could reward yourself by giving yourself a manicure.
A rewards system will motivate you to continue keeping up with your resolutions, no matter what those resolutions are.
Tell People
Telling family and friends about your goals will keep you accountable. Once you tell your family and friends about your resolutions, they’ll start regularly asking about them. For example, if you tell your coworkers you’re going on a diet, they’ll ask you about your weight loss throughout the week. They might also help you stay on track while eating lunch at the office. You can even ask family and friends to help you keep up with your resolutions. If a coworker catches you snacking on chips throughout the day, they can question you about it or even take them away.
Of course, let your friends and family know what they should do if they catch you slipping. You can even ask them to help prevent you from slipping. For example, you can ask your coworker to keep all of the snacks on his or her desk so you can’t get to them no matter how hard you try.
Give Yourself a Break
Some days it will be difficult for you to follow through with every single one of your resolutions. For example, if you’re working late at the office and didn’t bring something to snack on, you might be forced to go out to grab food. Even if you have food delivered, you can make healthier choices. Instead of getting a cheeseburger, consider getting a salad instead. However, don’t beat yourself up if you end up getting some fries. Everyone slips once in a while; what’s most important is you get back on track as quickly as possible.
Celebrate Your Success
Always celebrate once you reach your goals. By celebrating your success, you’ll feel more motivated to give yourself more goals to accomplish in the next year.
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