7 Ways to Make your New Years Resolutions Last

Every year around 80% of us make New Year’s Resolutions. Whether you are seeking to lose weight, stop bad habits or earn more money, use these 7 tips to make sure your New Year’s Resolutions last beyond the first week:

1. Be Specific – Rather than say “I want to lose weight”, decide upon the ideal size or weight that you want to achieve. Write it down and set yourself a deadline. The majority of our actions are guided by the subconscious part of our minds. For example our bodies tell us we are hungry before it becomes a thought. Our subconscious minds need specific instructions, so setting an ideal weight and timescale will help your mind and body work together to achieve your aim.

2. Support – Only share your New Year’s resolutions with people you trust to be supportive and ideally keep you accountable. Many people have very low expectations of success, so an accountability partner or buddy is a great motivator. Think about a reward that you and your buddy could share to celebrate your success, or conversely consider putting a forfeit in place, such as donating to a cause you wouldn’t usually support should you break your promises.

3. Make sure they are yours – Acting out of obligation or because we think we ‘should’ do something is far less motivating than a setting a goal or objective which holds true personal value. In goal setting and the making of New Year’s Resolutions, it’s perfectly ok to be selfish.

4. Express in positive language – Deciding to eat healthily and exercise is more motivating than giving up junk food or stopping eating chocolate. When we think about not doing something, we first think about doing the action. So by thinking about giving up chocolate we find ourselves constantly thinking about chocolate and succumb to the temptation.

5. Achievability – In order to make our New Year’s Resolution stick we need to think about their achievability. For example deciding to go to the gym every day is a big step for someone who hasn’t been in years. Far better to say I will go at least 3 times per week as this gives some flexibility. You can always increase the frequency but won’t be setting yourself up to fail from the outset.

6. Know your reasons why – When making any changes in behaviour it is highly likely that you will meet some challenges. When you have clear, powerful reasons why you want to change these will provide the momentum and energy to break through those barriers. When you have sufficient reasons why – the how often becomes clear.

7. Imagine your success – Our hidden self image acts like a thermostat to make sure our results are consistent with our expectations. This explains why the majority of lottery winners are broke within two years, or that people on diets often return to, or exceed their previous weight. By vividly imagining the desired outcome, we are planting an expectation of the future in our subconscious minds. This can then affect the things we notice or pay attention to, the opportunities which arise or the decisions we make. All of which will take us in the direction of achieving our goals.