Making your New Year’s Resolutions Stick

Are you one of those people that sets lots of New Year’s resolutions but by the second week in January most of them have gone out the window? Well, you are not alone. We all get over-excited about setting some great New Year’s resolutions on New Year’s Eve; “I will go to the gym every day” or “I will lose a stone in January”. But ultimately these goals are unrealistic and unreachable so you set yourself up for failure before you have even begun. “Going to the gym everyday” might seem like a great way to get fit really quickly, but do you have the time? Are you motivated enough? Isn’t it more realistic that you will go twice a week? “Lose a stone in January”, if you have a lot of weight to lose a stone in January sounds wonderful, but you would have to practically starve yourself to do this. This is not a healthy, realistic or achievable goal; would, say, “lose 1-2lbs a week until I reach my goal weight of …..” be a better goal to set?

With a little thought and effort it is much more achievable.

So how can you make New Year’s Resolutions that will ultimately set you up for success not failure?

Here are a few tips:

Make one resolution. It is hard to make changes and trying to change too many things at one time is even more difficult. Your chances of success will be higher if you only have one thing to change.
Give yourself time to plan how you are going to go about achieving your goal. You might need time to source a gym, get some advice on how to change your diet or break the goal down into lots of smaller goals.
Do tell your family and friends about your New Year’s resolution, ask them to support you and encourage you to reach your goals.
Practice self-affirmation; reflect on positive changes you are making and how much better they are making you feel.
Reward yourself. S tar charts, they aren’t just for children! Give yourself a reward for all your hard work and effort.
Keep a diary on your progress so you can look back and see how far you have come.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. , Wwe are all human and changing anything significant in our lives is hard, so remember you may have a few relapses along the way but we are only human and DON’T use it as a reason to give up.