New Year’s Resolution: 5 Ways To Stick With It
The season to be jolly has pretty much passed us by and now it’s the season to be bigger(pun intended with all the holiday food), bolder and better!
New Year’s resolution is somewhat perceived as the fireworks too; loud and obvious at first then it’s nowhere to be seen.
Even so, we should not disregard anything that makes us a better version of ourselves! Whether it's saving money, losing weight or quitting a bad habit, there might never be a perfect time to start something but New Year is all about new beginnings and fresh starts, and you can't have a better time than that. If you’ve had a short lived New Year’s resolution before, don’t worry! We’re here to tell you the 5 Ways To Keep Up With Your New Year's Resolution
1. Measure Progress not Perfection
The first thing that comes to mind is fitness.
Starting a new and challenging habit takes time. Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the author of Psycho-Cybernetics, did a study on this. The research shows that it takes a MINIMUM of 21 days before your habit goes into autopilot mode. Sure, persevering and making it there would be the ultimate goal BUT you need to credit yourself for every step you take there. If you hit the gym for 3 days that’s great progress in comparison to the time you didn’t even know where the gym was. So, enjoy every step to your ultimate goal.
2. Write Down...or Type Your Goals
Just like a grocery list, when you write, you remember better. When I say “remember” it’s not in the sense you might forget what you’re set out to do but the process itself works as a mental binding contract with yourself. Founder of LeadershipIQ.com, Mark Murphy, found in his studies called "The Gender Gap and Goal-Setting” that goals are achieved with a much higher success rate when it is written down. Can’t argue with science, people! Go get a pen and a paper!
3. Reward Yourself
REWARD YOURSELF!
This relates to our first step. Don’t go rewarding yourself to the point your progress takes two steps back.
Having said that, acknowledge you how far you’ve come and use that as a motivation to keep moving forward.
4. Expect Setbacks
Two steps forward and one step back is still one step forward..right?
Starting something new can be challenging and in some ways, discouraging. If you give up at the first sign of a hurdle, success will turn to be a distant dream. So cut yourself some slack, pick yourself up, dust off and take another shot!
5. Remind Yourself Why You’re Doing This
A self reminder often helps. Whether it’s in a form of phone reminder or a vision board or a best friend yelling at you like the GIF above. Root yourself back to the whole reason you put yourself on the track. Spend less time thinking how easy it would be to quit and focus on how rewarding it would be to succeed. It may be hard and at some point you might even think there’s no use for it but then again WHAT WAS THE REASON?!
At the end of the day, it comes down to perseverance and motivation. When the going gets hard that means it’s time for you to get harder! Since you've already decided to improve your life, stop procrastinating and show your resolution who's the boss! Don’t give up and make 2020 the best year you’ve had yet!
We from Lunch Actually would like to wish you a very Happy New Year! If you’re ready to settle down and find your perfect match, click the link below! ;)