It’s the time of year when advice about how to make your new year’s resolutions stick is everywhere, from the American Psychological Association to Forbes to WebMD.
Goal setting is something I’ve written a lot about here, and more specifically, I’ve done several posts on resolutions.
So if you’d like some help considering whether to ring in the new year with new goals, here are some thoughts I’ve collected over the years:
- Commit to your goals but be gentle with yourself — make it a priority to get to the gym or save more money, but if you slip up, don’t give up.
- Don’t try to become a perfect human being all at once — better to succeed at fewer goals than to flop because you tried too many.
- Remember why you’re making these changes — it can be challenging to make lifestyle improvements, so remind yourself what the payoff is. Do you want to feel better or be less stressed or look better?
- Break up big goals into bite-sized pieces — it’s easier to write a chapter than a whole novel, and easier to lose five pounds than 50, so start small enough to let yourself feel some momentum.
What helps you make resolutions that stick?
Here are some posts I’ve written about resolutions over the years:
- Resolve to do less
- Reblog from Zen Habits: The Child That Holds Us Back
- You don’t need a new plan – a reblog from Chris Brogan
- Christine Kane: How to Create Anything (Even When You’re Scared, Inexperienced and Don’t Believe in Yourself)
- Do you plan your life with the same diligence as a work project?
- Are you making a new year’s resolution?
- Making resolutions you can keep
- What makes resolutions achievable?
- Let’s call them goals instead of resolutions
- Focusing on one change at a time for two months each
- HBR: Developing rituals can help achieve your goals
- Be careful what you wish for: setting goals you’re sure you want
- How do you achieve what you want?
4 Comments
Alex Kourvo
I’m keeping my new year’s resolution extremely simple this year. For every cup of coffee I drink, I must also drink a cup of water. That’s it.
I’d like to drink more water throughout the day, and I’d also like to cut down from 3 cups of coffee a day to 2. I think this one change will accomplish both things in a tidy fashion.
Colleen Newvine Tebeau
I like it — it’s simple and measurable and healthy.
If you like the ritual of your three cups of coffee, maybe you could switch to half-caf? Then you’d get less caffeine but still have the experience of holding and sipping. Just a thought, because when I went off caffeine, I found I still really liked the flavor of going decaf, to still get that morning routine.
https://newvinegrowing.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/on-unexpectedly-kicking-my-caffeine-habit/
Let me know how it goes?
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