New Year Resolutions & 3 Ways to Make Them Stick

Do your resolutions sound similar this year? As in, have you made these resolutions before?

I’ve been guilty of that several times in the past. I always seem to keep up with my resolutions until about mid March and then my determination dwindles and before I know it I’m back to square one.

Maybe you’re thinking, “why even set resolutions at all?” In the past I’ve wondered that too. But as I get older, personal development and growth have become two things that are very important to me. Personally when I set New Year’s resolutions, it gives me something to look forward to and work towards all year long. The anticipation of what new habits I’ll have created at the end of the year is very exciting to me.

In the past I have overwhelmed myself with big, lofty goals and dreams. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always the person shouting that you should dream big and that if your dreams don’t scare you, you’re doing it wrong. BUT for the purposes of actually sticking with your New Year’s resolutions, I believe it’s very important to divide big dreams into smaller, actionable steps.

I learned this the hard way! The last two years, I’ve had some insanely big resolutions and although I was able to attain a few of those, I would’ve been able to achieve a lot more had I broken those up into smaller goals.

How do you eat the elephant? One bite at a time. Have you heard that one before? Regardless, hopefully that made you giggle. When we make smaller, more specific resolutions we are way more likely to stick with them.

In the past not only have I tried to take on too much but I also didn’t demonstrate much patience when it came to actually reaching my goals. Can any of you relate to this?

Setting a New Year’s resolution means that you’ve taken the time to evaluate the last year and you are making the commitment to do something differently for the course of the following year. Patience is key, expecting to master whatever it is you’ve set out for yourself in a hurry is a sure way to burnout.

Rome wasn’t built in a day right? Which brings me to my final point; pick one resolution at a time.

I tend to want to; learn a new language, pick up a new consistent hobby and stick to a workout schedule all at the same time. This can be extremely overwhelming, and as I get older I’ve come to realize that I would rather stick to one goal consistently, than start out with five goals and end up dropping them all.

This year I have a large goal (more coming on that throughout the year) which I’ve broken up into sections in an effort to set myself up for success. A while ago, I attempted to reach this goal but I did not do the work required to achieve it. I didn’t divide it up into smaller goals, I wasn’t patient and I set several other large goals along with that one, which truly just set me up for feeling overwhelmed on day one.

To sum it up, my top 3 ways to make resolutions stick are;

1. Divide your big dreams into smaller, actionable steps
2. Have patience with yourself
3. Pick one resolution at a time

Well, now that you’re done reading this long ass article, it’s probably New Years already!

So I’ll leave you with this, as long as you’re striving to be better in 2021 than you were in 2020, you’re doing something right!

Happy New Year, friends!

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