It’s that time of year again….the start of a new year, time to start working on all those New Year’s resolutions we all made. A New Year’s resolution is a promise we make to ourselves to somehow improve our lives in the coming year, they come in all forms; some people try and break a bad habit, some want to try something new, or do something to help others.
Here is a list of the top 10 common New Year’s Resolutions:
- Lose Weight and Get Fit
- Quit Smoking
- Learn Something New
- Eat Healthier and Diet
- Get Out of Debt and Save Money
- Spend More Time with Family
- Travel to New Places
- Be Less Stressed
- Volunteer
- Drink Less
How many times do you go into a New Year making New Year’s resolutions? And how many times do you end up breaking those resolutions soon into the New Year? So why do we continue to make these resolutions each year even though so few of us follow through with them?
- The New Year allows people to start from scratch, have a fresh start.
- We all have a natural urge for self-improvement, so bettering ourselves is great motivation.
- Wanting to make a resolution is a great thing, even though you may not follow through. Wanting to make resolutions means you still have hope and the belief that you are able to change.
- Creating resolutions is a method of erasing our errors of the previous year.
Here are some tips to help make your New Year’s resolutions a success?
- Limit yourself to a few resolutions, maybe even just one.
- Be specific about your goals.
- Make sure the goals are challenging but manageable.
- People like to make to-do lists, but in this case the list may become overwhelming and may prevent you from succeeding.
- Don’t try and do too much at once, take on a little at a time.
- Monitor your progress, seeing that you are actually progressing encourages you to continue and will increase your success rate.
- If you are trying to quit a bad habit, it is best to have a support system. It is easy to turn to these bad habits in times of stress, so call a friend instead.
- Allow yourself more time. Some people believe a new habit can be formed in 21 days, new research proves it takes a person an average of 66 days.
- Be strong – anyone can rationalize the past, it takes strength to change.
- If you fail, try again and again and again if you need to. Don’t be hard on yourself, be understanding and encouraging.