Did you miss any of your last year’s resolutions? You are not alone. According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, less than half of new year’s resolution make it past the first 6 months. Many people create a list of resolutions for the year ahead but end up not achieving their goals. Yours can be different.
It's that time of year when the resolutions that you set for yourself might be more of a pain in the a$* than a blessing, and you're wondering if you can actually follow through. I'm with you. I've set goals for myself and really felt that this was the year for me, only to have anxiety set in that maybe I was a bit too ambitious. You're in good company. But remember, establishing a resolution is not wort
h it if you won’t (or can't) follow through. But all is not lost, and it's never too late to restart your resolution or set new ones for the year. This article shows some ways you can set achievable health and wellness resolutions and stick with them.
1. Set Realistic and Measurable Goals
Aiming too high in your resolutions is not a good idea because the change process is laborious. Plans that demands too much of you set you up for defeat. If you set overly ambitious goals, you may likely miss it and be disappointed. “I will cook all my meals” is a good healthy living goal, but it may not be feasible for people with busy lifestyles. “Add veggies to my meals” may be a better wellness goal. Sometimes small, simple goals aren't very glamorous, but at the end of the day, the change in just eating more veg has a substantial return on investment. And quite often the goal can lead to other lifestyle changes as well.
If you are trying to cut back on a habit, you should document your progress over time to serve as a motivation. You may log your progress into journals or use an app. (There's an app for everything these days!)
2. Set Personally Important Goals
The highly connected world makes it much easier to know about other people’s plans. This knowledge may influence you to adopt common goals that are not relevant to your situation. You can only follow through with resolutions that are dear and meaningful to you. Sometimes the goals you set that benefit someone else ultimately can benefit you. For example, last year I really wanted to streamline the lunch box ordeal for my children and make them lunches that were exciting for them but with a nutritious focus. By planning ahead for the week, the process became super organised and elevated a lot of stress for me. I even prepared my lunch with theirs which kept my healthy eating on track. Now my daughter is enthusiastic and plans her own lunches. My goal for them ended up benefiting me.
3. Create a Plan
Merely setting a new year’s resolution won’t magically manifest them. You need a plan of action on the best way to achieve your dream. Your plans should detail what to do and how to overcome the roadblocks you might face on your journey. Planning can sometimes feel like a waste of time that you don't have, but ultimately it saves you so much time in the long run.
4. Determine Your Rewards
You may suffer mental stress if you are too hard on yourself by focusing on your resolutions. Be kinder to yourself. Maintain a clear vision of potential rewards of your actions and current achievements to help you relax and stick to your goals.
Whether you want to lose weight or boost your energy or make your life less chaotic and stressful, setting new year resolutions on wellness and achieving them is possible with careful plans and executions. And don't forget, it's never too late to start, or start again. Be kind to yourself and prepare a life plan that benefits you physically, emotionally and mentally.
You've got this!