We all have goals that we are going to try and accomplish this year. Across the world people are writing down things that they want to happen by this time next year. Some want to be better at budgeting and save more money. Others want to lose weight. While others want to kick an annoying or bad habit.
Most will fail.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a way where you can hit all of your new years resolutions. There are a few things that you need to get right to accomplish your new years resolutions. They are.
- Know your “why”.
- Prep yourself properly.
- What Makes The Difference.
Let’s go through them one by one.
How To Actually Stick To Your New Year’s Resolution Step #1 – Know Your Why
What does it mean to know your “why”? What it means is that you have a deep understanding of why you want to accomplish a certain task and/or goal. For example say your goal this year is that you want to lose twenty five pounds and be at 17% bodyfat. So the first thing you want to do is get out a piece of paper and write “I want to lose twenty five pounds and be at 17% body fat” at the top. Then underneath it you’re going to write one simple word.
Why?
Then you’re going to answer it. Freewrite for as long as you want until you feel like you have sufficiently answered the why question. For example in response to the goal above a person’s response could be ‘I want to lose the twenty five pounds and be at 17% bodyfat because I have not felt like myself since I gained the weight. I’ve noticed people are responding to me differently and believe that I’m getting less respect at work because of this.” Or whatever is true for that person.
Then after they’ve written it all out and got it down on paper, they’re going to write another question.
Why?
And so on and so forth. With each “why” that you are asking you are breaking things down into a deeper level. If you’re truly serious about accomplishing your goals, you’ll go at least five levels deep. Meaning writing out the answer to the question until you feel you’ve answered it exhaustively and then asking why again.
Keep going until you get down to your most basic and true reason for wanting to accomplish a certain goal. You’ll learn a lot about yourself in the process and learn why you want to accomplish your goal. Getting clear on that is the first step to truly accomplishing what you want.
How To Actually Stick To Your New Year’s Resolution Step #2 – Prep Yourself Properly
The next step is that you need to prep yourself properly. The biggest part of that is writing out your goals properly. You need to be able to see your goals each and every day. So you want to put them up somewhere where they are not going to be forgotten. A bathroom mirror works well but do whatever works for you. Second you want to write them out, with pen and paper. Not type them out, voice record them, or worst of all, ‘just remember them’ that doesn’t work. You need to write them out in your own handwriting on a piece of paper. That’s what you want to see everyday.
And when you write them out there is a certain way that you need to do that. You want to write your goals using the SMART format. Meaning goals that are.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time Bound
There are great guides out there on doing this but here’s the gist. You want a goal that is specific meaning not “I want to lose weight.” but “I want to lose 22.5 pounds”. The more specific the better. Next is measurable. This normally means there are numbers attached. “I want to lose x amount of pounds”, “I want to have X amount in the bank.” and so on and so forth. We want something that can be measured so we know if/when we accomplished it.
Next is achievable. If you’re 45 years old, never trained in your life, and weigh 145 pounds then “Being the next UFC heavyweight champ” is not something that you’re going to be able to accomplish. Exaggerations aside, you want to make sure the goal you have for yourself is something that you are actually able to accomplish. Push yourself, but be realistic.
Relevant. We did a lot of this work with going over the “why” question. If your why is solid then you’ve accomplished this. But relevant means that it ties into your life and at least somewhat with your other goals. But again if your why is solid then don’t worry too much about this part.
Time Bound. Put a date when you want it done by, that’s it. “I want to lose 22.5 pounds by November 3rd.” or something of that matter. It has to have a time to be done by. Otherwise there’s no countdown in your brain and the goal just floats around as something that will eventually happen.
How To Actually Stick To Your New Year’s Resolution Step #3 – What Makes The Difference
Now for the thing that will take you over the finish line. It’s great to be motivated and to work on discipline. But above those two things is the thing that will make the difference for you. And that is habit. Look at your goals, what you want to accomplish. Break down what you have to do, day by day to reach those goals. So for example for the lose 25 pounds goal. A list of daily actions might be.
- Hit the gym.
- Hit 150 grams of protein a day.
- Drink 8 glasses of water.
So what you would do is look at the most important of those, I’d say it’s hitting the protein. And then start tracking that day by day. Write down each and every day when you hit it. Use a calendar if you want. Start to get a picture of it. What you want to do is take each of these daily actions and make them a habit. Don’t try to do all three at once. Work at one at a time to make them a habit of your life.
Because it’s developing good positive habits that’ll allow you to eventually accomplish your goals. Work at one at a time. Don’t try to do everything at once. If you go a long time without getting it right, say two weeks without ever hitting your protein. Then try one of the other ones that might be easier for the time being. Each accomplishment will lead to others and inspire you.
That’s How To Accomplish Your New Years Resolution
That’s the best way I can think of to accomplish your new years resolutions. To be a different you next year than you were this year. Best of luck, though with this, you won’t need it.
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-Charles Sledge
