New Year’s resolutions are a long lasting tradition where people set goals to better themselves for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, it is common for people to struggle and eventually quit their goal.
Suzanne Degges-White, a chair and professor in the department of Counseling and Counselor Education, gave tips on how to meet your goals and stick to your resolutions.
“Choose a larger goal that has small, doable parts to it. You want to have easily achievable goals, because the surest way to success is success. Success breeds success,” Degges-White said.
If you want to work out, try working out three days a week if you are unable to do five. Because when you do three it’s more doable. Then maybe next week you wanna try going to the gym four days a week then later on you can meet your goal of five days a week. Doing your resolution step by step is a good way to meet your goal.
Reward yourself for each step
Find ways to reward yourself throughout the journey. For example, if you are trying to lose weight and you get on a scale and see the numbers go down that’s an intrinsic reward. You see yourself lose weight and in turn you feel good that you’re accomplishing your goal.
Another way you could reward yourself is by treating yourself if you meet a certain goal. For example, buying a video game, food, clothes or really anything you’d enjoy.
Hold yourself accountable
Tell people about your resolution so that you can be held accountable. Try writing it down for yourself and sign it so it’s like making a contract with yourself . If you tell people about your resolution and don’t just leave it in your head, it can help you honor and follow through with your resolution.
Holding yourself accountable also means staying disciplined and staying focused on your goal. So if you fail, reevaluate your approach to your goals and figure out what you can do better to meet them.
Give yourself permission to fail
Give yourself permission to fail and make mistakes. Learning how to recover from those mistakes is what’s important because no one is able to make changes overnight. Give up on any unrealistic expectations about yourself as well. If big changes were simple, everyone would be different than we are today.
Think of each day as a fresh start
Give yourself the idea that “This semester I will do better” or “I’ll try harder with this class.” If you start to relapse, give yourself a new week’s resolution if you can’t do a New Year’s one. Each day is a fresh start to get better.
