Millions of people will create a New Year’s resolution to pursue at the end of this year, or the beginning of the next. They’ll set goals and be excited at the thought of a fresh start.
But then comes crunch time when a commitment is needed to put those resolutions into play and this is where most people fail. A commitment is simply honoring the promises you make to yourself.
It’s easier to achieve your resolutions when you break your goals down by category and then implement a strategy for each one, rather than just throw some wishful thinking out into the universe and hoping it comes true.
If you’re serious about changing your life and achieving certain goals, then you’ll want to learn how to make strategic resolutions that help ensure your success. Then have a plan that helps you commit to making it work.
Set a Goal for Success and Commit to Your Resolution
This is one of the number one areas that people create resolutions for. Everyone wants to be a success and there’s something about the coming of a new year that can heighten the determination to make that happen.
Along with determination, you have to know how to make that success a reality. Many people equate success with a dollar figure or a certain lifestyle. If that’s how you think of it, then the first step is to get real and stop sugar coating what your life is really like at the moment.
For example, if being successful is your goal, one of your resolutions might be to make more money. However, if you have trouble holding down a job or making money or following through on any of your plans, then you’re not facing the truth.
What you need to do to commit to a success resolution is to scale your goal down to a specific target. It’s a lot harder to stick to a “be a success” resolution than it is to “make an extra $20,000 this year” one.
That’s because the first resolution is too vague while the second one is specific. To break the specific goal down to something you can easily commit to, you would then detail what steps or mini goals you’ll take to bring in that additional income.
Write down why you want that success and put that reason up somewhere so you’ll see it every day. When you know the reason why you want something such as success, it’s easier to follow through.
Look at the potential problems that could get in the way of your success. For example, if you want to level up in your career but you’ve always been passed over for promotions because you lack a certain skill or education level, create a plan to obtain the skill or gain the education.
Doing this makes it easier to commit to your resolution because, before the obstacle occurs, you already know how you’re going to deal with it. Get support for your success resolution to make staying committed easier.
When you make a plan, it can be difficult to go it alone. You might have a few or many days when you feel like giving up. If you’re doing it alone, it’s easier to just quit – but when you have others, especially if they’re aiming for the same success goals – then it reinforces your determination.
At the end of every month, you’ll want to check in with yourself to see if you stuck with your resolutions. If you got off track, look for anything that contributed to that. It might have been a habit or something unexpected.
Write down what you did to overcome any obstacles that cropped up. Doing this will help you going forward the next month. Keep in mind that your success goals will evolve over time as you level up, and that’s as it should be.
Create a Target Weight Goal and Resolve to Achieve It
Like success, weight loss is one of those New Year’s resolutions that a lot of people create, but struggle to commit to. That’s because deciding to set a weight loss goal as a resolution is often founded in unrealistic plans.
Many people fail to create a realistic weight loss schedule, so they end up getting disappointed pretty early on and quit. Weight loss resolutions are often created with a mindset that it’s all or nothing.
People who do this, clean out the pantry and refrigerator of all their favorite junk food treats. They change the way they eat overnight. Giving up everything they enjoy, they find they stick with the resolution for a few weeks (if that), then it’s back to their old way of eating and their former habits.
In order to commit to your resolution to lose weight, you need to be sure that your reason stems from within you. If you want to lose weight because someone else said you should, then you’re more likely to not follow through.
Weight loss should be something that you alone desire to do. You should want to change your life or get healthy and have weight loss tie into that rather than from the expectations of other people.
An important part of sticking with a resolution means making the best possible choices. You can commit to your weight loss resolution by foregoing any fad diets or changes that are known to fail.
This might be something like only eating one or two types of food groups or having to eat strange foods or follow dangerous dieting “rules.” Your weight loss goals should be within your ability to reach them.
Too many people end up letting go of their goal of trying to lose weight because they set goals that are much too difficult to reach. For example, someone who creates a weight loss resolution to lose 50 pounds in a month is setting an unrealistic goal to achieve using healthy methods.
It’s more realistic to set a goal of losing 10 pounds. Studies have shown that a steady weight loss is more likely to last than sudden, quick fixes where the weight drops off.
Don’t have vague commits when you’re creating a New Year’s resolution.
A vague weight loss commitment would be to “start going to the gym and working out.” A better commitment is, “I’ll go to the gym on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at six P.M.”
Resolutions that help you know where you should be when you should be can make losing weight more obtainable. Be sure to track your progress so you’ll be able to tell what’s working for you.
Be flexible and if something’s not working for you – like a diet or workout schedule – don’t give up. Instead, switch to something that does work for you. The last thing you want to do is continually give up and yo-yo back and forth with your weight.
Make a Resolution to Find a Healthy Relationship in the Coming Year
When you get busy or tired or have what feels like a hundred things to do, one of the first areas of your life that gets pushed aside is your relationships. But these are exactly what you need for support and for comfort.
Relationships help people to feel connected, to feel loved and to relieve stress. You can create a plan that helps you commit to your New Year’s resolution of improving and helping all your relationships.
Time is the most important thing to spend on the people you love. When you spend time with people and engage with them, it strengthens the bond between you. It’s especially important if you’re in a romantic relationship or if you’re married that you commit to spending time with the other person.
You have to make this a priority and not let the busy nature of life push it aside. Relationships grow when they’re nurtured and wither when they’re not. Besides spending time on your relationships, you also need practice thoughtfulness.
This can be something as simple as a phone call to someone you care about to say that you’re thinking of them or listening to how their day is going. Give little gifts for no reason at all.
These don’t have to be expensive items, but they’ll still mean a lot to the other person simply because you thought of them. Talk openly to the ones you care about. Don’t confuse silence with love.
When there’s an issue in any of your relationships, part of your New Year’s resolution should be to speak the truth. Problems that get swept under the rug don’t remain stagnant.
They grow and impact future moments. That’s why, when people argue, problems from months or years ago get brought up. Those problems weren’t dealt with honestly so they’re still hanging around to cause further damage in the relationship.
Let part of your relationship commitment be to find fun things to do together. In any relationship, laughter is a bonding experience. Make part of your resolution that you won’t tear down anyone who’s in a relationship with you – whether it’s family, friends or a romantic partner.
Be committed to speaking positively to and about the other person. That doesn’t mean that you have to pretend or lie about real issues. It means don’t waste any of your time complaining when you can direct that same energy toward making good changes between you and the other person.
Resolve to Engage in Self-Care That Supports You
Self-care has become a much talked about topic lately. But despite all the information and advice making the rounds, it’s something that not a lot of people practice. That’s because most people have a tendency to put themselves last.
They’re so busy working and caring for other people or other things that they give themselves the least amount of time – the least amount of concern. If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to commit to better self-care, there are numerous ways that you can achieve that goal.
Since it’s so easy to overlook your own needs, take your calendar for the New Year and block off time at least every week that you can spend on yourself. Get some exercise during these appointments with yourself or do anything that you want to do.
Take a dance class. Go to the movies. Splurge on a nice dinner out. Get out in nature and go for a walk. Ride a bike. Spend the money to get a manicure or a massage. Read a book. Check out of social media and spend that time relaxing.
Make part of your self-care resolution to understand where your stress comes from. Create a plan on how to either eliminate it or learn the best ways to deal with that stress.
When you don’t feel well, don’t push yourself. Some people try to keep on pushing themselves even when they’re sick. If you get under the weather, commit to doing whatever you need to pamper yourself until you’re well again.
Self-care means that you make it a priority to protect your wellbeing. That could be physical, mental or emotional. You might have issues in certain areas of your life that are causing problems and instead of practicing self-care and doing what’s best for you, maybe you’ve tried to tiptoe around it so you don’t rock the boat.
Anything that negatively impacts your body, mind or spirit should go. If it’s a toxic job, relationship or habit, you need to plan to get to the root of it and get rid of it. Take care of your health needs.
Get your physical. Make an appointment with a therapist if you need to. Don’t skimp on sleep. Sleep is a great form of self-care. Your body gets replenished while you sleep and if you’re not getting enough of it, it’ll hurt your health.
It doesn’t matter what needs to get done or who is clamoring for your time. Prioritize sleep as part of your self-care routine. Make it a resolution to let go of things that don’t matter in order to live happily.
Seek your dreams as part of your self-care. Don’t do something just because it’s “always” done a certain way. Stop beating yourself up if you practice negative self-talk. Accept yourself for who you are, flaws and all.
Get Your Finances on the Right Path with a Money-Savvy New Year’s Resolution
Many New Year’s resolutions are made in the area of finances. As one year starts to end and another begins, it causes people to look back at how they wished their finances had ended up.
If you’re like most people, you wish that you’d made better financial choices. Or you wish you had a way to grow your income. Create a resolution specifically for your finances.
There are many ways that you can commit to such a resolution. One thing you should know about your money is that if you don’t have a plan for it, it’ll get spent on things and in ways that won’t always be beneficial for you or any of your financial dreams.
If you don’t already have a budget, you need one. Too many people see a budget as a way of restricting their fun. But a budget is necessary for you to be able to spend your money so that you can have fun without regrets or having to let things go unpaid or goals go unmet.
You can use budget software, write one down in a notebook or whatever else you prefer. It’s only important that you have one that works for you. Before you do anything, you need to create a savings.
Otherwise, when emergencies crop up, you’re forced to either borrow money or skip paying a bill to handle the emergency. In addition to having a budget, let part of your resolution be to learn how to handle debt if you have some.
Debt can be a stressor. It’s so easy to get into, but can be a struggle to get out of. But you should make it a priority to grow your wealth, not your debt. Committing to paying off any debt not only frees your money up, but it also frees you from the stress of worrying if you can pay that bill.
If you have high interest rates, it might be a good idea for you to refinance some obligations. Plug financial leaks. A financial leak trickles your money away little by little and seems insignificant, but not when figured over the course of a year.
This might be from something like eating out too often or spending too much money on a habit. Most people aren’t aware of how to spot a financial leak. One example can be if you have to throw out food.
If you’ve had to throw out food in a can, box or even fresh like bread or bananas because it went bad, that’s a sign that money is leaking right out of your pocket through your meal planning or eating habits.
Another financial leak can be in the area of insurance. You may be paying too much for your car or homeowner’s insurance. Many people are over insured and don’t realize it.
Let your financial resolution right now be to creating a savings account, stopping waste, getting out of debt, and being accountable for what you do spend.
But you also need to make a plan to invest and do other financial moves that will protect you in the future. Making and adhering to your New Year’s resolutions should be more than something done on a whim. It should be a serious change you’re committing to for life.
