- New Year’s resolutions often go unfulfilled for most of the people.
- Common New Year resolutions may include losing weight, following exercise, eating healthy, quitting smoking and giving up alcohol.
- Setting realistic goals and monitoring the progress can help keep up the resolution throughout the year.
It is important to set yourself up for success when you decide to set a New Year's resolution. Having the plan to move forward, setting realistic goals and keeping track of progress are important to bear in mind when heading toward the new year.
Some of the ways that could help keep
New Year’s resolutionsare given below
Get Adequate Rest
Start Small
Be Honest
New Year resolutions are set because we think it could improve our lives in some way. But, it could be successful only when we are honest with ourselves. Be honest with yourself and figure out what is important to make your resolution work.
Monitor Your Progress
Monitoring your progress will help you make corrections to achieve your goal. You can use your mobile phones for reminders or even send a pre-scheduled e-mail to yourself. Include reminders of why you are working on the goals. Whenever you fail, ask yourself the questions that you want to achieve and confidently answer.
Find Support
Getting support from family and friends is beneficial to keep New Year resolutions throughout the year. Change is often difficult when done alone. Make your intentions clear to your family and friends so that they could hold you accountable for your goals. Join a support group to reach your goals such as a gym or ‘quitting smoking’ group. It is important to have someone to share your struggles while keeping New Year's resolution.
Plan Rewards
Whenever you make a small progress towards achieving your goal, you could reward yourself. This could be a great encouragement to keep you going during the hardest days. Start your rewards once a week and later change it to once a month. Rewards help you look forward to something.
New Year resolutions could be anything that could improve health, lifestyle or behavior of a person for good. Most of the people focus on physical health and not mental health.
UAB clinical psychologist Josh Klapow, said that people should focus on mental wellness as well.
“Our thoughts and feelings have a direct impact on our overall well-being. Taking hold of stress can have a lasting impact on mental wellness.”
“Daily stresses have a funny way of building up to a point where people can feel overwhelmed. Stressful situations can’t always be stopped, but there are ways to manage the feelings of stress.”
“Monitoring stress levels is a good habit of making, and taking short mental breaks can be helpful in breaking up the high-tension moments. Carving out a little time for something as simple as a daily walk can also reduce feelings of stress,” said Klapow.
Reference:
- 7 Steps For Making a New Year’s Resolution and Keeping It - (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/7-steps-for-making-a-new-years-resolution-and-keeping-it.html)