How To Actually Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
We’ve all been there…making a million New Year’s resolutions that sound so good at the moment, but don’t even last until March. Or even February!
Ugh, there’s nothing worse than feeling like you failed yourself, is there? And even if your resolutions weren’t anything too spectacular or serious, it still manages to chip away at your confidence simply by breaking a promise to yourself.
Don’t worry, we’ve all done it. You’re not alone. And you are not a failure. You just need to refine your technique a little.
That’s why I’m here with you today, sharing a round-up of tips on how you can actually keep your New Year’s resolutions. Because we’re all about setting ourselves up for success over here in this little corner of the internet.
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How To Actually Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
It’s that time of year when the resolutions are starting to float around, so we want to make sure that you’re able to create a resolution that you can actually implement long-term in order to make a big difference.
If the word ‘resolution’ grates on your nerves, then maybe think of it as an intention or a goal. Come up with your own language so that the action feels right in your body to get started on the best foot forward.
How To Create A Sustainable New Year’s Resolution
Here’s the thing with New Year's resolutions, they’re kind of like crash diets in that they just don’t work. Similar to crash diets, there might be some positive qualities to them: like eating more fruits and vegetables is undoubtedly good for you, right?
But if all you’re “allowed” to eat are fruits and vegetables, you’re eventually going to burn out and have a “cheat day.” Which leads to a cheat week, cheat month, and eventually you’re just back in your old eating habits.
What we want to do instead is to create more of a lifestyle, which promotes long term gradual change instead of short term bursts of radical change.
If the whole diet metaphor was working for you, then make sure to learn more about intuitive eating HERE, or read the book.
Understand What You Want Long Term
The first step in creating an effective resolution is to understand what you even want long term. You won’t be able to change anything if you don’t know what you’re working towards. Take some time to reflect on this first, rather than jumping straight into action.
Focus On How You Want To Feel
For some people, tangible goals don’t make sense. In this case, think about how you want to feel. Do you want more peace in your life? Do you want more playfulness? Or joy?
Understanding how you want to feel can help you figure out the path to getting there through your resolution actions.
Hone In On What You Can Control
There’s a lot in life that we can’t control, which is why it’s important to focus more on what we can control (which isn’t a whole lot…hate to break it to you).
This means working on your responses to life, rather than being in a reactive state. Practicing meditation and mindfulness can help with this process.
Set Yourself Up For Success
The tendency is for people to want to make big lofty goals that sound great in theory, but aren’t attainable long term. In fact, those big changes can overwhelm your system, which might make you shut down and not do anything at all.
Make Small Attainable Goals
The best way to set yourself up for success is to make small attainable goals that you can keep. These are promises to yourself, and when you keep promises to yourself- you build confidence. As you build confidence, then you feel more daring and capable of dreaming bigger.
Maintain Flexibility
It’s vital that you maintain some sense of flexibility even within the rigidity of your goal. That means that if you have a goal to move your body 3 days a week, it might help to not put a time limit on how long you need to move for. This way you can always hit the 3 days no matter what, even if that means some days it’s 5 minutes and other days it’s an hour.
Flexibility is important, because life will keep lifeing around you, and you need to be able to stay in the flow of it.
Practice Consistency
Cultivating consistency is a practice that feels really unnatural to a lot of people. The best way to become more consistent is to make those small attainable goals, so that there’s more assurance in your ability to actually do what you told yourself you’re going to do.
Yes, that means sometimes doing the thing even when you really don’t want to. That’s consistency.
Keep The Promises You Make To Yourself
When you work on keeping the promises you make to yourself, you’ll feel your inner trust soar. Trusting ourselves is so important in navigating the world, because we have to make ten million decisions on a daily basis. And when we don’t trust ourselves fully, it might tamper our ability to make the best decisions.
Commit To Discipline
Similar to consistency, discipline is something that feels unnatural to many people. So, if you’re one of them, just know that you’re not alone.
In yoga we know discipline as tapas, which refers to that little fire within all of us motivating us to push forward and push through. Try to visualize that fire fueling you on the days that you don’t want to keep the promise you made to yourself, and see if that spark helps you.
Learn more about the 8 Limbs of Yoga HERE.
Don’t forget to share your favorite tips from this post in the comments below.
Or, better yet, share your New Year’s resolutions so that they get out of your head, and are actually written out into the world!
xx,
K