How to Maintain Your New Year’s Resolution

Having trouble maintaining your New Year’s resolutions? Once all of the holiday festivities slow down, it can be tricky to settle down to maintain those intentions. It’s easy to throw out all of your goals and kind of get into a “funk,” and getting into this “funk” can make it easy to fall into old poor habits. Returning back to old bad habits from 2017 can make it challenging to keep up with your goals for 2018.

What can I do to maintain my New Year’s resolutions?

• Think about the purpose of your New Year’s resolution. Does it still align with your values and goals? Is this still a reachable goal/resolution? If the answer is no, it’s never too late to switch your resolution to a more workable goal you want to reach because you have more passion and determination to reach it.
• Consider making your goal more of a lifestyle change. Sometimes goals that are more realistically achieved are more of a lifestyle change instead of an intense unrealistic extreme goal. Think going to the gym 4 times a week, not running a marathon when you’ve never trained for it.
  Write down the resolution on a piece of paper. Seeing your goals written down allows yourself to physically see the goal, which makes you more likely to want to work toward achieving it.
• Give yourself a step-by-step plan. After writing down the resolution, attempt to find at least three steps that will help you toward reaching your goal.
• Monitor your progress toward your goals. Try to keep track of the little steps along the way to see how far you make it day by day and month over month. This will be so insightful and inspiring to look back on!
• Share your goals with friends and family. They can be a support system in helping you achieve your goals.
• Remember to take it one day at a time. Successful resolutions do not happen overnight; they take work and determination!
• Treat yourself. As you get closer to reaching your goal, get yourself something like that special dessert you love and enjoy it guilt free!
• Stay motivated. For example, put Post-It notes on your mirror with motivational quotes to keep a daily focus toward reaching your goal.
• Practice positive self-talk. You may have a few setbacks along the way to achieving your goals, but in order to reach your goals, you need to keep yourself in a positive state of mind.
• Own it. Keep in mind these are your goals, not your family’s and friends’ goals. While they can support you in them, make sure to keep in mind you’re the one in control of reaching your end goals.
• Follow this simple formula to maintain your resolution: E+R= O. Events + Responses = Outcomes.

Events + Responses = Outcomes

• To be successful in following through with your resolution, attempt the formula above. For example, if your resolution was to lose weight by living a healthier lifestyle, implement the formula. You can’t change the past events that lead up to your previous lifestyle, but you can change the way you respond to a healthier lifestyle in the present moment in 2018.
• Your achievable goal is the outcome. In the formula, your previous lifestyle [event] plus your goal to wanting a healthier lifestyle, such as eating healthier and meditating, [response] will create the [outcome] of a healthier lifestyle both mentally and physically.

If you are currently struggling with maintaining positive and achievable goals, it may be a good idea to connect with one of our skilled counselors at Symmetry Counseling today. You can contact them at 312-578-9990 to set up an appointment.