5 Tips For Sticking To Your Resolutions

How To Stick To Your Resolutions

    So you’ve made your resolution! Whether it’s to lose weight and get fit, read more books, travel more often or whatever, you’ve made a choice to form a new habit. As humans, we are naturally habitual, and what I’d like to share with you today are some top tips on keeping those habits, and ultimately your resolution, in check!

We all face self-defeat at some points in our lives, and new habits are not immune to such. All too often we hit a bump in the road and our habits quickly dissipate, forgotten and abandoned. So first, let’s look at some of these ‘bumps’, the causes of our disappointing failures…

Enthusiasm fades – probably the most common cause. We all begin our new endeavours with a passion and determination, but soon enough the enthusiasm fades and we no longer have the drive, the spark, we once had.

We forget – 2 or 3 days go by, our resolution out of mind. It’s all too easy to forget for a while something that we intended to do, especially when nothing is there to remind us.

Distractions – today, a plethora of entertainment options surround us – the TV, games consoles and the internet being some of the most prevalent. At times, these seem more appealing than our resolutions. I mean, with the entire 10 series of “Friends” on Netflix, who can blame us for choosing that over a tiring gym session!? (Except me… I blame you!)

Work and/or personal life gets in the way – all too often, I hear people complain that they can’t get to the gym because they’re too busy, or they get home from work and are too tired or they’re travelling/commuting or blah blah blah… I don’t buy it! The fact remains though – work or personal life can affect the way we look at our resolutions.

Giving up is the easiest option – so you will go strong until March, maybe even April or May. Congratulations, you’ve made it 3, 4 or 5 months. But creeping up on to your shoulder is that little devil that keeps telling you it would be easier not to keep it up. He’s muttering “it’s easier to stay in tonight and forget about the gym”, or “Friends is on Netflix, put down that book”. The gist of the story is that we see quitting as a viable option.

These are a few of the most common bumps in our road to keeping up a resolution. Let’s now address each of these and come up with a solution.

Enthusiasm – I feel the best answer to this is to make several, smaller, highly achievable goals, rather than making one huge, daunting commitment to something. It’s easier to aim for and achieve a goal if it is within our grasp. For example, we aim to read 50 pages of a book each week. That’s not a lot, but it’s achievable (you can tailor these goals to your abilities remember). Or what about dropping a pants size (trouser size for us Brits!) in a month? Do-able, realistic, and better yet, achieving these goals bolsters our enthusiasm. Making small, achievable commitments allows our enthusiasm to stay in check!

We forget – easy! Reminders are our best friend here. Today’s smart phones are not only always by our sides, but are incredibly user friendly and ergonomic. Put them to good use and set reminders up daily/weekly to make sure we don’t forget about our resolutions. Or use sticky notes and post them on our laptops, computers, pillows, bathroom mirrors… Or put our running shoes by the front door.

When our habits become automatic, these reminders are obsolete, but for now, get them everywhere!

Distractions – this is a tricky one. This, above many, requires the most will power. One effective method is to leave our distractions somewhere we are not. In other words, leave your phone, laptop or whatever distractions you have, in another room. Or leave them tucked away in your bag if you wish to read on your commute.

Or if you’re super serious and/or lack the will power to stay away from distracting websites, give Concentrate a go. It allows you to block yourself from a website for a certain amount time!

Work/personal life – a big’un! I will talk more about this specifically in another article, but for now, I’ll suggest a few tips!

We all have certain commitments that are unavoidable. Whether these are work related or personal, they occasionally interfere with our resolution. But that’s ok, because we can aim to lower the interference outside of these obligations.

When I hear people say they’re too busy for something, I take this with a humongous pinch of salt. Unless you work for 16 hours a day and sleep for the remaining 8, I sincerely doubt that you have no time for a self-improving resolution. These typically only take an hour or two at the very, very most.

If getting fit is yours, what about before or after work? And before you whinge “eughhh I'm too tired!” or some other petty excuse, let me remind you that, albeit counter intuitive, exercising gives you more energy! Furthermore, it can take as little as half an hour (shower and change time included), and can be done almost anywhere!

So why not get up half an hour earlier or workout at home when you return (and have attended to the kids, to dinner, to the pets or whatever important things are on the daily agenda).

If reading more is your resolution, why not read on your way to work, on your way back, on your lunch break, before bed, or any other moments throughout the day that you could put something unimportant down and pick up your book.

Again, another post soon will address this specific distraction issue, so look out for it!

Giving up is easier – well, of course it would be. But nothing worth having comes easily! When that moment rolls around (and believe me, it will) the best thing we can do is look back at what we have already achieved, and look forward to what we can have, if we just…kept…going!

So there we have it. One last point I’d like to make about all of this – accountability. A buzzword in today's “healthy body, healthy mind” subculture, this word alone can make or break your resolution. 

If you hold yourself accountable, take responsibility, then anything is possible really. I suggest you hold yourself accountable. Tell a million and one people about your resolution and make a deal with yourself that you won’t give up, no matter what. Therefore, you hold yourself true to your deal with the added knowledge that if you don’t, everyone will know.

So good luck, and please feel free to ask for any more specific tips! I will gladly do my best to help.

Dom