Going to the gym, one might notice a sudden influx of people working out at the beginning of every year. Armed with handy little checklists, they storm through January with bluster, February with pained resolve and by the time March rolls around, they’re nowhere to be found.
Of course, this is not to say that New Year’s resolutions are useless. They bring purpose and meaning to the year, and the joy of working towards a goal comes second only to the joy of actually meeting it.
And yet, people fail as often as they succeed. The challenges are too insurmountable, or boredom sets in or the goals they set just lose their meaning.
So how does one avoid such tragedies? Well, here are some ideas.
1. Find something important to you
A big mistake a lot of people make when writing New Year’s resolutions is copying the stuff other people want to do. Adding something to your list just because someone else said you should isn’t a great idea either. To create New Year’s resolutions that carry genuine meaning and impact for you, try basing them off actual problems in your life.
2. Learn more about your goals
To give yourself a better idea of how you might want to achieve your goals, try finding out about how other people tried it. You can talk to a friend or family member who’s gone through similar experiences, read a book or article on the subject or browse web forums to see what’s worked out well for others.
3. Keep it realistic
While grandiose resolutions may be noble, the fact remains that if you can’t do something, you just can’t do it. And beyond just having goals that can be achieved, also ensure that the action necessary to achieve them won’t severely disrupt your schedule and interfere with school, work and personal life.
4. Call it a plan
While most people conceive of New Year’s resolutions as simple entries on a checklist, these are not enough. An objective without an actionable plan is nothing more than a pipe dream. A plan should split a larger goal into actionable, measurable chunks and prevent you from working feverishly in early January and losing interest later.
5. Check in from time to time
Plan to review your progress every couple of days, weeks or months. Take note of what went well, what didn’t go well and how you might change your plan accordingly.
6. Why wait for New Year’s?
While the idea of making resolutions on New Year’s Day feels satisfying — it is a new year, after all — waiting for one specific time of the year to try to fix all your life’s problems is asinine. It’s never too early or too late to change your life for the better, and the perfect time to start is always now.
