New Year’s Resolution Ideas: And How to Actually Achieve Them
Hopefully, with a new year coming you have successfully evaluated your life choices and you conducted a year-end review on your personal life as well.
Now it’s time to set your New Year’s resolutions!!
New Year’s resolutions can be tricky. The new year leaves us feeling inspired- especially after surviving such as hard year (yay for that!)- yet we need to rely on more than just motivation to consistently stick to our big goals and resolutions! (If you need some help with making your goals stick- pick our our Consistent Healthy Habits Guide here!)
Your resolutions are very important when it comes to bringing change into your life. They can help you a lot to achieve your goals and improve your life. If you don’t have too much experience in New Year’s resolutions, or you just need a little inspiration, here are the best New Year’s resolution ideas.
Of course, we will also dive into on how to actually achieve the resolutions you make.
Why we make New Year’s resolutions
Every time a new year comes, most of us set New Year’s resolutions. But why do we do that? First of all, it is a tradition that goes back to the Babylonians. Secondly, the start of a new year has a psychological effect on our mindset. The New Year symbolizes the new beginning, the chance for a better life. It seems like a good occasion for us to hit the reset button and start a new life (or at least to make some changes).
We all would like to better ourselves, make smaller or bigger changes in our life. Some of us would like to lose weight or pick up a new skill, while others would like to quit a bad habit. It doesn’t matter what your motivation is, New Year is a perfect time to set new goals and start a new phase in your life. This timing also makes it easier to keep track of your progression.
New Year’s resolution ideas
When we set our New Year’s resolutions, we make a promise to ourselves to improve our lives and make the coming year a better one than the last one was. These resolutions can be about anything in relation to your life. Here are a few New Year’s resolution ideas to inspire you to make your resolutions for next year (or any time of the year for that matter):
- Lose weight
- Eat healthier
- Exercise more
- Stop procrastinating
- Read more books
- Quit smoking
- Drink less alcohol
- Spend more time with your loved ones
- Spend less time on social media
- Save money
- Learn a new skill
- Be more confident
- Be more grateful
- Start a journal
- Overcome your fears
- Cook something new every week
- Keep your home clean and organized
- Invest time in self-care
- Go to bed early
- Spend less time binge-watching Netflix
Related Read: The Ultimate Guide to a Home Detox: Ridding Your Home of Hidden Toxins
Why we fail to keep our New Year’s resolutions
There are many reasons why we might keep failing to achieve our resolutions. It’s important to be aware of the most common reasons for failure because it will help you to avoid these mistakes and be more successful with your New Year’s resolutions.
Your goals are unrealistic
One of the most common reasons for failure is that our goals are unrealistic.
For example, maybe you have resolved about losing weight before. There is nothing wrong with it. The problem comes when you define how many pounds you would like to lose, because you may set a goal that is almost impossible to achieve. For example, setting a goal of losing 100 pounds next year can be difficult to keep. It’s better to aim for small victories: something like losing a few pounds every month or removing refined sugar from the diet.
You don’t make a plan
A lot of people make New Year’s resolutions without any planning, and it is a huge mistake. How can you expect your goals to be achieved when you have no idea how to move forward?
Let’s say you would like to save money. To ensure that you have some spare money at the end of next year, you will need a detailed plan. Where can you save some money? Maybe you could skip Starbucks? How much money could you save a month? Your plan should be specific and easy to follow.
You forget to track the progress
Another common reason for failure is the lack of tracking. We set goals, but we often forget about tracking our progress. It is important to keep an eye on where you are on the way to achieving your goals. Even small victories can give you the motivation that can help you to keep going. You can write down everything into a notebook (I use my planner) so it will be easy to follow as time goes by.
You don’t have enough willpower and support
The first few weeks you are very motivated and enthusiastic to make a change in your life, and then, you slowly start to lose interest. Does it sound familiar? Unfortunately, this happens to a lot of people and makes us give up on our New Year’s resolutions. Willpower only gets you so far.
That’s exactly why you need to do things like establish your “Why” and find an accountability partner (game changers!).
How to achieve your New Year’s resolutions
Here are some great tips on how to keep your New Year’s resolutions. Hopefully, you will also find them useful and they will help you to break old patterns and achieve your goals.
Be specific when choosing your goal
It’s good if you find a few amongst our New Year’s resolution ideas that you would like to make as your goal. But don’t forget that these are just general ideas, you have to make them specific to fit you. Look for your why, then try to set specific, concrete, and achievable goals that are at the same time realistic and measurable as well.
Don’t make too many resolutions
It is likely that you might want to change more than one thing in your life. But setting too many resolutions can lead to failure because you can’t focus on all of them at once. If you focus only on one or two specific goals, you will have more of a chance to succeed.
Make a plan
As mentioned above, planning is necessary when it comes to achieving your goals. Try to make a detailed action plan: decide on your main goal and also set milestones to reach your goal. The best is if you write everything in a notebook.
Take small steps, try a 30-day challenge
If you don’t have too much time to make a well-worked-out plan or you want hit the ground running, you should try a 30-day challenge. Such a challenge is great because they are simple and easy to follow. At the same time, many of them are very well detailed, including a plan for each day as well.
What I love about a 30-day challenge is that 30 days is enough for a new habit to be developed (usually). Therefore, if you stick through the 30 days, you may automatically continue the challenge after it is over. With these small steps, you can make a big change in your life. For some great 30-day challenge ideas check out this.
If you want monthly inspiration, don’t forget to head over to my free Facebook group Developing Healthy Habits, where we have new challenges every single month all year long.
Related Read: My Experience with a 30 Day No Sugar Challenge
Have a Wonderful 2021
I hope that despite the pandemic you are about to close a great year.
It seems there is always something to be grateful for… AND you should be proud of yourself for staying strong and making this year work the best you could. I know I am (insert me flexing my biceps- ha.)
Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with wonderful events and goals that actually stick!
Do you make New Year’s resolutions this year? If yes, what are yours?
