Do you find yourself setting New Year’s resolutions each year, only to forget about them in the next 48 hours?

Do you experience a surge of motivation with the New Year, only to feel like you quickly decline?

If so, it's okay and you’re not alone in your experience. This experience is so common, that according to statistics published by Forbes, the average resolution lasts only 3.74 months. In fact, so many people abandon their resolutions that January 17 has been declared by many sources as “Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day.” We now see many people laugh at setting New Year's goals and choose to not make them at all. We believe that no matter what the motivator, you can utilize it to create change in your life. Whether you choose to start on January 1st or June 27th, go ahead and do the thing!

So How Can We Make This Thing Work?

If you want to stay committed to your New Year’s resolutions this year, you may want to consider setting more realistic goals. Rather than attempting lofty resolutions that will require you to overhaul your entire life, decide to slowly incorporate smaller habits and routines. You can utilize SMART goal setting to help guide your goals for the year. According to The National Library of Medicine, SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timed. Knowing yourself is an important part of goal setting to ensure it is realistic and achievable. For example, say I am a mother with a very busy schedule, I may want to go to yoga daily and I have to acknowledge that this might not be realistic for my family. I would make my goal using SMART goal setting to go to a 60 minute yoga class two times a week for the next five months. The good news with goals is the most important part is to get started, no matter how small, and then you can adapt them as you go. Notably, action-oriented resolutions tend to be more successful than avoidance-oriented resolutions. Here are some examples that may help:

1. If you want to start exercising more, resolve to take walks three or four times a week (rather than saying you’ll go the gym every day).
2. If you want to get more organized, resolve to clean each room one by one (rather than tackling your whole house all at once).
3. If you want to save money, resolve to eat out only once or twice a week (rather than saying that you’ll cut out restaurants entirely).
4. If you want to read more, resolve to finish one book each month (rather than one each week).
5. If you want to get more sleep, resolve to start going to bed a half hour earlier each evening (rather than saying you’ll go to bed at three hours earlier every night).

Bonus Resolution: Start Attending Therapy

Everyone can benefit from speaking to a therapist, so if you don’t already attend therapy, now’s the perfect time to start doing so. The therapists on our team can help you identify areas where you may have room for improvement, show you how to set realistic goals, and guide you toward achieving those objectives. Maybe you have tried before, but there is just something that is blocking you from your goals. Our therapists focus on you and the bigger picture to ensure you are working towards living your best life. Contact us today to schedule your first therapy session.

https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/new-years-resolutions-statistics/#:~:text=The%20Forbes%20Health%2FOne%20Poll,and%2013%25%20last%20four%20months.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6796229/