It’s that time of year again. The time when we reflect on the past twelve months and set our sights on the year ahead. For many of adults, that means making New Year’s resolutions.
Popular resolutions include eating healthier, exercising more, quitting smoking, and spending less money. But despite our good intentions, the majority of us will fail to stick to our resolutions. In fact, according to a study by the University of Scranton, only 8 percent of people achieve their New Year’s goals.
Statista indicates that the number one 2023 resolution is to exercise more, eat healthier and loose weight. If your like me, I used to make the same resolutions yearly only to fail come week two in the gym. I felt overwhelmed with the amount of bodies that took up space that weren’t here just two weeks earlier.
We tend to fail to meet these goals for many reasons. So why do we bother making resolutions if we know we’re likely to break them? And what can we do to increase our chances of success?
We can start by first defining what a healthy lifestyle means to you– personally. Not what he blogs say. Not what the influencers say. What does it mean to you and then build a plan around that meaning.
Part of the problem is that we often set unrealistic goals. We’re more likely to stick to a resolution if it’s something we can realistically achieve. For instance, rather than resolving to lose 50 pounds, we’re more likely to succeed if we set a goal to lose five pounds.
It’s also important to have a plan for how we’re going to achieve our goals. Simply resolving to eat healthier is not enough. We need to have a plan for what healthy eating looks like. That might mean planning our meals, cooking more at home, or packing our lunches to take to work.
And finally, we need to be prepared for setbacks. No matter how carefully we plan, there will be times when we slip up. When that happens, it’s important to forgive ourselves and get back on track.
Making a New Year’s resolution is a great way to start the year off on a positive note. By setting realistic goals and making a plan to achieve them. However, you really don’t need the calendar year to turn over to make changes in your life that will make you happy. You can start today or even tomorrow.