How to Increase Your Chances of Successfully Completing Your New Year’s Resolutions
How To Get a Jump-Start on Your New Year’s Resolutions Before the New Year
This is a guide to help you set yourself up for success in 2018; because goal-setting isn’t about “just doing it,” it’s about planning ahead to make the “doing it” easier.
Write Out a Detailed Plan that Allows You to Approach Your Goals Slowly
If your goal for 2018 is to start a meditation practice, write out a detailed plan that will help you visualize every small action you need to take in order to accomplish your end goal. You should write down how long you’d like to meditate each day (by the end of the year) and start out with small, achievable goals so that you can slowly work your way up to your end goal. Please note that when I say small, I mean SMALL. Do NOT try to tackle your BIG goals all at once.
For example, if your end goal is to meditate for 30 minutes each day, then during the first week of January, your starter goal should be to meditate for a minute or two each day. Even if you feel like you can do more, stop. We often burn ourselves out by starting too vigorously.
Have each week planned out for the first month. If your first week’s goal was to meditate two minutes per day, increase it by a minute in week two (for a total of three minutes per day). But be fluid; if you struggled with two minutes per day the first week, maintain that goal for week two. At the end of each month be sure to assess your progress and plan the next month accordingly. In other words, come up with a plan; but write it in pencil.
Multiple Goals
If you have more than one goal for the upcoming year, either tackle them in bite size pieces each day or stagger them throughout the next few months.
If your two main goals for 2018 are to meditate and to read more, you could make a plan to meditate for one minute a day and read three pages daily. Make the goals small and achievable. The ultimate goal is to just get both things done and make doing them a habit.
Alternatively, you can also stagger your goals throughout the new year, accomplishing one at a time. January and February can be the months you begin to establish your meditation practice, while March and April will be the months you focus on reading more. When March rolls around you’ll have been meditating pretty consistently already, so achieving that goal won’t take up as much of your mental energy. And with this method, you aren’t introducing two new goals at once. If you already meditate and read quite a bit and you’re just trying to nail down consistency, you can always give yourself larger goals to start off with. But remember that you can adjust your plan as you go along, and don’t try to bite off more than you can chew! Make your daily goals a challenge, but achievable.
“Lay the Clothing Out the Night Before”
It’s a common trick for people who want to start going to the gym in the morning to lay out their athletic apparel the night before. It’s one less thing they have to do in the morning, and it’s a visual reminder of their goal when they wake up. Find a way to “lay out” your goals the day before. If your goal is to meditate, prepare your meditation spot. For example, pick a window with nice lighting and lay out a pillow to sit on or perhaps choose an essential oil to apply beforehand.
I jump-start my meditation practice by laying out an eye pillow and a light blanket on my yoga mat because sitting makes me antsy and less likely to meditate for the time I intended, which brings me to my next point…
Do a Trial Run
You have a few days before the New Year; do a trial run of your daily goals. Keeping with the meditation example, learn what works for you and what doesn’t before you begin. Test out different meditation forms and see what you like best; this will increase the likelihood of being successful because you’ll know what obstacles to expect. If guided meditation helps keep you focused, stick with that; if not, try chanting or breathing techniques. Get creative when it comes to making your goals more enjoyable. I always meditate after I’ve had a cup of green tea because I’ve found that I will fall back asleep without the aid of caffeine, and I find it more comfortable to lay down than to sit up. Knowing these things about myself has helped me sculpt a meditation routine that works best for me.
Reminders, Reminders
Studies have shown that writing your goals down on a daily basis increases your chances of accomplishing them. At the top of my daily to-do list I write “BIG GOAL:”
and I fill it in when I wake up (or whenever I first pick up my to-do list.) This serves as a reminder of what I am ultimately working towards.
You can also write/type your goals out and take a picture of them to use as the background of your cell phone or the screen saver on your laptop.
Clean, Tie Up Loose Ends, Get THAT thing done
Don’t go into the new year with the same nagging things on your to-do list from the previous year. Don’t leave big cleaning projects undone (or silly chores either). Get it done now. Set yourself up for success by not allowing yourself to get distracted or held back by things you should have already done. Time you spending thinking and worrying about these mundane things could be time invested in achieving your goals.
Plan For Failure(ish)
What are the habits that hold you back? If mindlessly scrolling through social media is one, keep your phone in the other room as you prepare to get cracking on your goal. If you get
hung up on mindless cleaning tasks under the guise of being productive, make sure those things are accomplished beforehand or set a rule that you can’t clean UNTIL you have completed your big goal task for the day. We talked about getting the nagging tasks done before the New Year, but that doesn’t mean they won’t accumulate again. Be mindful of tricking yourself into feeling productive when you’re actually avoiding the thing you want to get done the most.
Mark Twain said, ”If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” Identifying your biggest frog will help you set your day up for success.
The “WHY”
Get really clear on your WHY. Why are you setting these goals for the New Year? Writing down your goals is just as important as writing down your why. When things get tough, you’ll be reminded of why you started and be more motivated to keep going.
Most importantly, establishing a firm reason for doing something calls your attention to your true values and can help you weed out goals that won’t actually improve your life. Your goals should be about celebrating who you are and what you’re capable of. Weed out the ones that don’t do that.
