What is a resolution?

Usually made at New Years, a resolution is a long term goal that will be completed within a certain time frame.  New Years Resolutions are usually completed within a year, and they are made to completely change your life, routine or your health.  Generally, a person will make a resolution to lose weight or get into shape, since most people will gain weight during the holiday season.  Unfortunately 43% of people will likely fail their new years resolutions.  But you don’t have to be that person.  Let’s learn to succeed in your resolutions.

Different types of resolutions.

There are five main categories of resolutions that you can consider to improve your life over all.  Many people will choose one main resolution, while others are a bit over ambitious by choosing several different resolutions.  Let’s go through the categories first, so you can better choose what life improvements you are looking to accomplish.

Mentally clarity

• Daily journaling or creating a diary

• Read more often

• Start mediating

• Saying daily affirmations

• Practice saying no to others

Social goals

• Spend more time with friends

• Find new friends

• Let go of toxic people

• Develop healthier relationships with others

• Attend more social events, friend dates

Physical Achievements

• Get fit

• Eat healthy

• Lose weight

• Quit a bad habit, like smoking or excess drinking

• Get better sleep

  
  

Life Structure Improvements

• Get more organized

• Spend less money

• Go on a spending freeze

• Get a new hobby/skill

• Travel more

  
  

Spiritual Growth

• Attend mass/cermonies more often

• Read scriptures more often

• Pray more often

• Get more connected to God

• Be more mindful daily

How to pick the right resolution.

To conquer your resolutions and change your life, there’s a few aspects to why we fail to complete or follow through with our original plans.

Why we fail:

• The goals are out of our reality

• The goals take too much of our time

• Poor planning

• Lofty goals

We struggle to complete our resolutions because most people take on huge goals without too much organization or realistic changes made in our daily lives.  To really change our lives we need to make changes that grow over time and fit well into our current routine.

Your first step is to pick a goal that you have passion for and a willingness to complete.  Choose from some of the options that I listed above or choose your own.  These resolutions are large, long-term goals.  So they will need to be broken up and built upon over the next year.

You will keep your motivation to complete your New Years resolution by having a passion or zest for your chosen goal.  If you pick a goal that is far different than personality or motivation, then you will fail and give up on your New Years resolution.

Achieving a goal starts by planning your goal out, step by step.  Starting a goal at full throttle will get you to lose interest fast, so you give up quickly.  We all want to succeed, but many of us just don’t know where and when to start.  The New Year is a great time to change for the better and grow into a person that truly thrives in life.

7 ways that will get you to complete your Resolutions this year.

1.Pick a realistic goal for yourself

Choose a goal that you’re passionate about.  Choose something that will keep your attention for the long term.  As discussed above, picking a resolution that you are willing to work on the long term, will help you to finish the goal and enjoy the time that you’re working on this goal.  Choose a resolution that you can fit into your life without too many major issues or problems, but it still allows positive changes in your life

2. Don’t choose too many resolutions

Many people choose too many resolutions that would be too difficult to complete.  Just like any other goal, picking a large amount of goals to accomplish will overwhelm you.  Once you feel overwhelmed, you will stop working on all of your resolutions.  Pick one or two resolutions at a time.

3.  Be specific

Once you’ve picked a resolution, be specific in what exactly you want to accomplish.  If you choose to read more, pick a realistic reading goal, such as how many books each month or how many hours per week you would like to read.  By being specific, you will be able to see results from all of the effort that you’re putting into your goals.  Keep track of hours read or books read so you can stay motivated throughout the year.  Choose a concrete goal to concentrate on each week or each month and celebrate your accomplishments often.

4.  Break up your resolution into smaller goals.

Choosing a large goals are intimidating to goal.  Once a goal or resolution seems too far out of reach, most people will give up on their goal, which is how most people will stop working towards their resolutions.  After picking your very specific resolution, split that goal up to weekly or daily goals.  By splitting the goal apart, you will not only track your progress over time, but you won’t feel overloaded by pressure of completing your goal.

5.  Get organized

Now it’s time for you to start organizing your life and home to reflect your changes.  Clean out things that will disrupt your new resolutions.  If you want to get healthier, get rid of your biggest food temptations so you’re not tempted to fail so quickly.  Replace those temptations with different, healthier foods or replace them with different activities that will distract you when you’re having cravings.  Clean out your home.  Organize items that you will be using for your resolution to be close by and in reach.  Set reminders of your goals around your home, so you stay motivated and in control of your goals.

6.  Schedule it in!

Make time for yourself and your resolutions this year.  Time blocking is a great way to get more done during that day.  Block in personal time, time in-between work meetings, time to clean and cook, and time for your new resolution.  By concentrating on one task at a time, your daily worries and stressors will decrease over time.  Time blocking your schedule will increase your ability to succeed in your short term and long term goals. Create deadlines for you to accomplish milestones of your Resolution.  This will give you motivation to keep going.

7. Get the right tools.

Don’t think that you have to do everything on your own.  Change takes time and effort, especially if its a goal that you have never attempted to complete before.  Get yourself the proper tools that will help you to succeed.  Do your research on goals that you want to complete.

Here are some helpful videos about organizing your time and your life.  Make sure to Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get helpful advice weekly.

Buy and download yourself a planner or planner app that will help you to organize your time and your life.  If your time blocking, look for a planner that has a to do list that is on the same page as your schedule, so you can block out time for your hobbies and goals.

Here is a link to my planners on Amazon.

Download or purchase a good financial planner or budgeter if you have a goal that specifies that you try to save money this year.  All of my planners have sections that emphasis saving money.  But check out my goal planner if you want to pay off your debts.  Or purchase my Budget & Saving organizer in my Store.

Program alarms and notification in your phone if you need to keep track of when certain tasks need to be done or started.

Lastly, download a fitness and calorie tracker if you have a goal to get healthier in the next year.  There are lots of options out there, so make sure you do your research on which app works well for you.

If you need a physical planner, check out my fitness planner to help you track your meals and workout plan.

New Years resolutions are important so you are able to change and grow as a person.  Forming a new goal or resolutions helps you to make positive changes in your life.  By making and continuing healthy habits, will increase your happiness and long term life enjoyment.  Don’t be afraid to conquer your life and change it for a better.  Don’t be discouraged by others or by the statistical percentage of failure of others.  Form your own path and work towards what you are passionate about.