10 Ways You Can Stick to Your New Year's Resolution

Recently, I wrote an article on the top 10 New Year’s resolutions – a list of the most common resolutions to give you some ideas of how you can be the best version of you possible in 2019. Today, I am going to give you ten steps on how to maintain those New Year’s resolutions and stick to them.

Some people have trouble sticking to doing something for a month, let alone an entire lifestyle change, but it’s important to remember that resolutions all take a sacrifice of some kind; you may also experience setbacks, but a setback isn’t failure.

Without further ado, let’s look at the steps:

1. Make it specific

“I want to lose weight in 2019” – OK, that’s brilliant. But how much weight do you want to lose? Making a goal specific makes it set, so you can work your way to it with a more attainable target in mind.

2. Measure it

We will use the example of weight loss again, so if you’re looking to lose weight this year, these two points are for you. If you’re looking to lose two stone, measure your weekly progress until you reach your goal, this will help to keep you motivated and see how far you’ve come. Then if you want to maintain, keep checking to ensure you’re at a good level!

3. Make it achievable

Make it achievable, but also make it a challenge. A challenge will maintain the feeling of motivation you have and making it achievable will help you to keep focus on the goal you have in mind. Half of people who set New Year’s resolutions said that they wouldn’t stick to them, with 52% of the same batch saying that setting achievable goals will help them to stick to them.

4. Make it realistic

If you are measuring your resolution, make sure it’s realistic! Setting a timeframe is all well and good, but what’s the point if you can’t realistically get it done? That will just cause a lack of morale and you’ll probably look back on the venture as a failure and not attempt it again. Help yourself out and set something that’s realistic!

A good thing to realise is that all goals will have a timeframe, whether they be short, medium, or long-term. Make sure you give yourself a reasonable timeframe to complete what you want to do!

5. Add a bit of excitement

Rewards and treats are an excellent way to add excitement to a resolution or challenge. Trying to save £2,000? What are you going to spend it on? A holiday? Car? The serotonin kick you get once you complete your target will be boosted by receiving the reward you promised yourself once you hit your goal!

6. Record it

Recording your progress is the perfect accompaniment to you measuring it. Recording it will help you to keep track of the progress and how far you’ve come in a specific amount of time. Then, when you have completed your goal, you can look back on it and potentially laugh.

7. Willpower

As with anything that means you’re making a sacrifice, it will take willpower to achieve and maintain. Whether you’re looking to quit smoking or lose weight (there’s that example again), it will take willpower for you to resist not going back to smoking if you stopped for a certain amount of time – when those moments where you’re resisting come, just remember the goal you have and use it to motivate yourself and push through.

8. Ask for support

Asking for help is not a bad thing. I was stuck in the shops for 10 minutes the other week because I refused to ask for help as to where the coconut milk might be: I was in the dairy aisle, it was in the world foods aisle… who would have thought? But, it was an important lesson. Ask for help when you need it!

9. Don’t run with the crowd, make your own resolution

Nobody likes a bandwagon. Well, except those on it. But your New Year’s resolution is exactly what it says on the tin, it’s yours! So, get away from any trends and do something that would ultimately fulfil you the most. Dry January and Veganuary are current trends now, why not try something different?

10. Treat failure as a setback, not a reason to give up

This is all to do with your mindset. Setbacks happen, but how you recover from them will truly define whether you conquer your goal/resolution or not. 

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