How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions: 5 SMART Tips

by John Griffith
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Have you decided to make some new year’s resolutions, but are afraid you won’t be able to achieve them? Don’t worry, this is a common problem. We love to make ourselves big promises at the beginning of the year, only to get overwhelmed and abandon them just a month later. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. This year, why not finally pull through on your resolutions? We will show you how to keep your new year’s resolutions easily with the SMART system. By setting realistic resolutions and having a system that motivates you and puts a plan in place, you can achieve any resolution you set your mind to.

This year, why not finally pull through on your resolutions?

how to keep your new years resolutions piece of paper that says resolutions

How To Keep a New Year’s Resolution?

Most new year’s resolutions tend to fail due to the fact that they are unrealistic to begin with. Maybe the workload is too much, the resolution is too vague, the only you decided on this resolution was due to outside pressure, or you just didn’t set a realistic plan for achieving it. All of these may be reasons why the resolution failed. That’s why in order to keep your realistic new year’s resolutions, you need to set SMART goals, just like in marketing. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Most new year’s resolutions tend to fail due to the fact that they are unrealistic to begin with

woman writing in her journal

#S – Specific

Your resolution should be clear. Making it concrete is very important rather than deciding on something vague like “I want to lose weight.” How much weight do you want to lose? By when do you want to have lost it? Will you be going to the gym or working out at home? And so on. Be specific – “I want to lose 5 pounds with home workouts by June.”

Your resolution should be clear

man holding a journal with resolutions

#M – Measurable

Even if you think this may be relevant only to fitness related goals, it’s important to do this for other types of goals as well. Maybe you wanted to stop biting your nails this year, then take pics of your nail growth. Or maybe you are trying to incorporate a new habit, then track it on your calendar. And so on.

It’s important to find a way of measuring progress for all types of goals

journals on top of each other

#A- Achievable

Achievable doesn’t mean you shouldn’t shoot big. But trying to do this big step too fast will only leave you feeling frustrated, or you may become obsessed with the resolution and turn your back on other significant aspects. For example, making a resolution to save a million dollars in two years may not be realistic for everybody, but saving 100$ a month may be. Of course, everything depends on your lifestyle. You may want to lose 5 pounds in two weeks, but that is dangerous and hard, so perhaps strive for a pound a week.

Trying to do this big step too fast will only leave you feeling frustrated

small steps are still progress

#R – Relevant

Make sure the resolutions is relevant to you and holds some significance. If you are choosing this resolution out of self-hate, societal pressure or just a manic episode, then it means it won’t last long until it fails. You need to build up a process where you are actually thinking about how this resolution will have a positive impact on your life and why you want to achieve it.

Make sure the resolutions is relevant to you and holds some significance

hand writing in a journal

#T – Time-bound

The timeline of your goal should also be realistic. Give yourself enough time to achieve the goals, with plenty of milestones set along the way. Focus on the small wins, so you can make gradual progress. When you are changing a big aspect in your life, you are planning for the next decade, not just the next couple of weeks.

The timeline of your goal should also be realistic

plain white january calendar

These were our SMART tips when it comes to how to keep your new year’s resolutions. We hope you found this article useful. Now you know how to make any resolution a reality without worrying that it might fail.

These were our SMART tips when it comes to how to keep your new year’s resolutions

happy new year party

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John Griffith

John Griffith is a young, passionate journalist. Writing has been John’s hobby ever since he was a boy. He has worked in some of the UK’s most successful news portals over the course of his professional career but found his forever home at Archzine.