How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
The New Year celebration has come and gone. We are already more than 10 weeks into 2018. How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? People wait for the New Year to mark a beginning of something new and exciting. They have commendable plans and hope that, this year, their dreams will come true. However, about 3 – 4 weeks into the year, most people give up on their gym-going, smoking-quitting, and money-saving plans.
Let’s face it. It’s much easier to give up than constantly struggle to achieve something. Ted Turner once said, “You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win”. You may not be a quitter, but a whole mountain of excuses is always there to help you stay in your comfort zone. So, what can you do to keep your New Year’s resolutions?
Set Realistic Goals
If you want to lose 40 lbs., don’t hope to achieve quick results. Most people, who want to lose weight, stop when they don’t see any results in a week. Weight loss is a long-term project, just like climbing a career ladder. You need to break down the process and set small realistic goals for every week or month. This way you won’t be disappointed and look for excuses.
Get Ready for A Battle
When you are smoking and drinking at the New Year’s party, it’s easy to say that you’ll quit next year. Any goal requires a tough battle. In most cases, such battles involve a lot of stress, feeling of hunger, withdrawal, and depression.
If you get ready for a battle, it won’t be as hard to endure. Remember, no matter how tough you are, changing a habit can ruin your mood and bring you down in a matter of days. It’s up to you to exercise your willpower.
Reward Yourself
In order to achieve something, you need to work out a rewards system. After reaching even the smallest goal, you need to treat yourself to something you always wanted. Of course, it shouldn’t be a cigarette or a piece of cake in case you are quitting smoking or losing weight. It should be something you can really look forward to and enjoy. Small rewards create huge motivation.
Cultivate The Fear Of Failure
When you are getting on your way to achieving a goal, think about failure. Explain to yourself how unfortunate, stressful, and horrible it will be to fail. The fear of failure is one of the best motivators. If you don’t have it, work on getting it.
Imagine what your failure will look and feel like. When people fear failure, they easily find new resources to achieve their goals. You’ll notice how you stop making a fuss over trivial matters and start working harder.
Visualize Your Success
Visualizing the success is another great way to motivate yourself. Don’t you want to look perfect in the mirror? Go on for days without thinking about a place to hide and have a cigarette? Get that huge paycheck? By thinking about the results, you don’t just help yourself move forward but make it more enjoyable.
New Year is a wonderful occasion to make plans and stick with them. The resolutions are easy to make but immensely hard to keep. Today is probably the last chance to collect yourself and avoid giving up on your New Year goals.