Do you ever have those late night convictions that tomorrow will be the day you’ll be super productive? Like just suddenly. Next morning comes around and maybe you even woke up at 8am.
But then you’ll be on your phone for 2 hours. And here we go again: back to regular routine. No workout. No cleaning and organizing your room. No reading. No time spent on that hobby you’re trying at. Moreover, you still watched a few episodes of that drama and still, waiting for you is a list of incomplete assignments. Basically, nothing changed.
What I described here is exactly what the life of new year resolutions are like for the majority of us. I’m guilty of it, too.
For the last few years, I’ve had almost the same recurring resolutions. They are like suitcases I drag along with me, moving from one year to the next. I never got the will to actually open and make real use of the content inside.
Despite all that, I still think resolutions are great. It’s a form of self-care and wanting to improve yourself. You’re working towards the future and that’s something to be appreciated. However, if only we can keep them. Inspired by a Ted Talk podcast episode I listened to, I’m going to outline what the specific problems are with most New Year’s resolutions and goals in general. More importantly, I want to answer: so, how do we maintain and achieve our goals?
First, here are top reasons why resolutions fail:
- You set up unrealistic expectations. This could mean the time frame assigned, the frequency, or the outcome/performance of the goal.
- They are too vague and not specific nor measurable enough.
- You don’t actually understand what your motivations are.
Now, moving on to how to increase the likelihood of you actually keeping your resolutions and achieving what you want to for this year.
- Start tiny. Take really tiny and easy steps upwards. For me, this was reading one page of a book every day.
- Think daily changes and value consistency over large quantities at once. This could be going outside for a minute every day. Sounds stupid but you know what, we all try too hard to be good. It’s ok to not become good since you do need to start first.
- Make them measurable and be within your control. Don’t say I’m going to gain 100k followers. Rather, I’ll post twice every week.
- Understand the exact motivations and reasons behind the goal. Is this for yourself? Or are there external pressures, like from your mom or your peers or even the society?
- Create an accountability structure. Check the status of your goals daily. Reward yourself.
- Make them specific and positively phrased. I’m not going to be unhealthy anymore → I’m going to be healthy by eating one serving of vegetables every day.
- Balance. Don’t overload yourself.
- Surround yourself with people with the same goal and/or mindset as you. For instance, join a related club or talk more to people with the same interests.
Good luck! I hope this helped.
