Make a New Year’s Resolution and Stick To It

It’s almost a New Year! You know what that means? Millions (if not billions) of people are making New Year’s resolutions. If you’re the optimistic type, you might think that a New Year’s resolution is some kind of goal that people set for themselves at the beginning of the year. The rest of us know that most people make their resolutions with absolutely no intention of keeping them. They say they’ll lose weight or read more or something like that but end the year weighing more and reading less.

But not you.

You’re different.

You’re not some chump who blows smoke and makes empty promises. You grab life by the throat and body slam it when it gets your way.

Right?

Well maybe you’re not that kind of person yet but you could be.

Here are 10 steps you can follow to make sure you actually follow through on your New Year’s resolutions throughout the year instead of ending the year with regrets and more empty promises of “maybe next year”.

1. Plan Ahead

It’s difficult to achieve your goals without a clear plan of action. Breaking your end goal down into a series of simples tasks to achieve on the way not only gives you a path to success, but also helps you feel accomplished along the way so you’re more likely to keep going.

2. Have Realistic Goals

You can lose weight. You can quit smoking. But can you become CEO of your company with no experience or fly across the Atlantic in a prop plane with no pilot’s license? Singlehandedly solve world hunger? Probably not. When it comes to your New Year’s resolution, you need to pick something realistic. Realistic doesn’t mean easy, it just means it’s something you’re actually able to do with a little bit of (or a lot of) hard work. That way you don’t let yourself get discouraged by picking something you could never do in the first place.

3. Get an Accountability Partner

It’s easy to tell yourself no or to quit on yourself. It’s a lot harder when you feel like you’re letting someone else down. Get yourself an accountability partner. This is someone who won’t let you give up on your goals. Someone who wants you to succeed as much as you do. Pick someone you know will stay on you and who you wouldn’t want to look in the eye and say you quit because you were too lazy to keep going.

4. Reward Yourself

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But you’re not a dull boy are you? You’re incredibly interesting and you’ll be even more interesting once you achieve your goals! But make sure to take some time to enjoy the little victories along the way. As you accomplish parts of your goal, reward yourself for your hard work. This will help to spur you on further down the path.

5. Be Specific

A lot of people make general goals. I wanna lose weight. I wanna quit smoking. I wanna go to the gym more. These are good goals, but they’re not specific. How much weight are you trying to lose? 5 pounds? 10? Are you trying to quit smoking cold turkey or will it be gradual? If you don’t go to the gym at all, technically going once a month would be going more. But will you really see any improvement? That’s what we really want with these goals. Improvement. Picking specific resolutions will help you track your progress.

6. Seek Encouragement

We’re our own worst critics. We’re always telling ourselves we’re too fat or too dumb or too ugly. Even if it’s not true. These negative thoughts affect everything from our moods to our motivation. If I’m going to fail anyway, why even try? Cut those thoughts out. Seek encouragement. Join groups of people with the same goals. Tell your friends about your resolution and how you’re working to achieve it. Get a pat on the back. A little encouragement goes a long way. One time a girl said I was cute and I’m still riding that high.

7. Adapt

I think everyone who has survived 2020 knows that things can change in an instant. The norms we were used to can shift and there’s not really anything we can do about it. Except adapt. We can’t just give up or keel over. We’ve got to roll with the punches and keep going.

8. Keep Your Goals Front and Center

You need to be thinking of your goals every minute of every day. That way you don’t forget them. If you put them on the back burner, there’s a high chance you’ll never get them off. And then you have crispy dreams and burnt aspirations. It’s like those old cartoons where they held a carrot in front of a horse to keep it moving. You need your resolution at the forefront of your mind to keep moving.

9. Track Your Progress

This goes along with planning ahead. You want to have a clear path with checkpoints along the way so you know how close you are to your goal. Without tracking your progress, your goal will feel so far away and insurmountable that you’ll probably stop trying. My favorite way to keep track of things is by using a bullet journal but I’m sure there are plenty of apps you can use or even just some plain notebook paper.

10. DO NOT QUIT

It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

Rocky Balboa

This is the most important tip. You can make all the plans you want and get everyone and their mama to encourage you, but it’s all for nothing if you quit. Some people might say the really treasure is the friendships you make along the way and blah blah blah that’s all bs. If you quit now, you’ll quit forever. Keep your chin up and battle through the pain and the doubt and the failures. Don’t give up and never quit.

If Rocky had quit, we wouldn’t have 8 of the greatest movies ever made.

Think about that.

-Jeston

Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira or on Instagram: @Death.Of.Hemingway