Sticking To Your New Year’s Resolution

So many people fail to meet their New Year’s Resolution because that’s exactly how they approach it – as a New Year’s Resolution.  Well my friends, I am here to put a stop to that train of thought.  If you want to actually achieve your New Year’s resolution this year it’ll have to be more than just a New Year’s Resolution.  It’ll have to be a New Life’s Resolution.

 

Step 1:

It’s Not A New Year’s Resolution – It’s A New Life’s Resolution

It’s all in the details.  From the approach to the execution to the commitment to the mindset, if you want to succeed than you have to raise the stakes.

Let’s face it, New Year’s Resolutions are meant to be broken.

Why? 

Well, it’s simple really.  New Year’s  Resolutions are made to be broken because there’s always next year.  A New Year is just another set of 52 New Mondays…there will always be another 52.

So, how do we break this yearly occurrence?

For starters, we need to change our state of mind.  We need to raise the stakes on our resolution and make it a New Life’s Resolution…something permanent and worthwhile…something that will require effort, commitment, and will actually result in a better you.

 

Step 2:

Every Day Is A New Year

Many of us use the New Year as the excuse itself as to why we’re postponing the start of that Year’s Resolution.  Think about it for a second…for how long did you postpone starting Last Year’s New Year’s Resolution?  Let me guess, 365 days…Am I right?  If so, then you fell victim to The-New-Year’s-Resolution-Monday Syndrome – “i.e., I’ll start Monday.”

Well, now here we are…52 Mondays later finding that this will be the year we stop smoking, we stop drinking, we start eating healthy, we start working out, we stop/start whatever it is we were supposed to do last year (and quite possibly the year before that, and the one before that, and so on…and so forth).

So, how do we stop the Monday Syndrome?

We stop it by realizing that everyday is the start of a New Year!

So, everyday we procrastinate is another year from today until we reach our goal.  A year is a long time and many of us think it’ll be plenty of time to meet our New Year’s Resolution.  But the sad truth is that most of us just tell ourselves, “I’ll start tomorrow”…for 364 days in a row.

So, if we realize that The New Year starts everyday we might finally break that procrastinator’s state of mind and actually get on with the resolution!

 

Step 3:

There is no start or finish – there is only now

Once we realize that what matters is only right now we become much more aware of our decisions and start actually making moves.  Forget about tomorrow or the next day, and certainly forget about yesterday and last week – what matters is now!

What matters is how you will feel today – not what you did yesterday or what you’ll do tomorrow.  The surefire way to actually achieve your New Year’s Resolution is to take it one day at a time…and think about that day as if it were your deadline.

Stop smoking today and stop again tomorrow.  Or start working out today and start again tomorrow.  Yeah, it won’t be easy but nothing worth doing ever is.

As a matter of fact, it will be a lot worse than just “not easy.”  It might be quite taxing!

But that’s why you take it one day at a time…one step at a time even.  Believe me when I say it WILL NOT be easy, but it WILL BE worth it.

 

Step 4:

Run In The Rain

If you stick to your guns you’ll find yourself resolved by year’s end.  As a matter of fact, you’ll be a new person the day your once taxing task becomes second nature…and it will one day become second nature.

I hate running with a passion!  As a matter of fact, I hate it so much I didn’t even consider myself a runner though I had been running 4-6 days a week for nearly a year.  But I stuck with it – approaching everyday as the day I would start running.  Finally, one day it happened – I found myself running in the rain during a cold front.  There was a windchill factor below 19°F and I didn’t even think twice when lacing up my shoes – it was my first and last run and nothing would stop me from meeting that goal.

 

Step 5:

Live

Probably the single most important factor in sticking to your New Year’s Resolution is to simply live your life.  Your New Year’s Resolution needs to be something that positively contributes to your life – something that betters your lifestyle.  

 

So whether it’s to stop smoking, stop drinking, start eating right, start working out, learning to play the piano, learning Spanish, etc. the point is to make sure your New Year’s Resolution will make you a better you.

The day you realize your New Year’s Resolution has made you a better you will be the day you’ll commit 100% to your New Life’s Resolution without having to commit at all…because it’ll be officially part of your life – and you don’t commit to life…you just do it (sorry Nike).