New Year's Resolutions Don't Work - Do This Instead

Happy New Year.  With the beginning of a new year, I bet many of you have spent time reflecting on the past year. You may have New Year's resolutions to do better in the coming year. Your resolutions may go something like this: "I will lose 50 pounds" or "I will improve my faith life" or "I will exercise more". You may even have started changing all of these things at the same time. Unfortunately, by mid-February, there is a good chance that you will fall back into old habits and your resolutions will be forgotten.

So, what can you do to make sure that your resolutions for self-improvement actually result in the changes you want to see? My advice is don't make New Year's resolutions. Instead, use that New Year's energy and enthusiasm for change to inspire you to make a monthly goal.  Ask yourself: "What change can I make this month that will last?"  For example, if you want to lose weight, set a goal to eat a healthy breakfast every morning. This may sound like a small change, and it is, but a small change is better than no change.

By setting a smaller, more easily achievable goal, you will get a burst of energy and a wonderful feeling of success at the end of the month when you see your accomplishment. Then you can ride that new wave of enthusiasm to set a goal for February.  I bet that you will continue to practice the new habit you established in January while making changes to another habit in February. At the end of February, reassess your progress and set a goal for March. By the end of 2020, you will have made 12 self-improvements while most of your friends and family will have forgotten all about their New Year's resolutions.

Habits take time to change. It's likely that your bad habits developed over a long time, maybe even years. So it is going to take lots of practice to change your bad habits into new, healthier habits. Be kind to yourself and set smaller, realistic goals for change so you can celebrate the success. For example, look at a big goal like losing weight and break it down into smaller habits. Write these down and then select one to work on in January. You will be tempted to try and do them all, but I beg you not to. I've been down that path and all that change at the same time is a lot of work and can be overwhelming. When you start feeling stressed, you are likely to quit just to make yourself feel better. When you pick one small goal and accomplish it, it motivates you to set the next goal. You feel empowered and capable of making the changes you want to make.

Break your monthly goal down into manageable weekly goals. Let's say you want to drink more water. How much water do you drink each day now?  If you only drink one glass of water a day, it may be too hard right at the start to say you are going to drink eight glasses of water. Instead, for the first week of the month, set a goal to drink water at all your meals. That will increase your water intake by 200%.  The next week, add two more glasses. You might add these at snack times, say 10:00 and 3:00. Now you're drinking five glasses of water when you used to only drink one. Keep adding water to your weekly goals. By the end of the month, you will be drinking eight glasses of water a day.

So, what is my goal for January?  My goal is to finish Konmari-ing my RV. I started the process in November and when the holidays came, I stopped.  My temptation is to say that I will lose weight, pray more, drink more water, cook more Whole30 meals, do all the repairs on my RV, visit Disney World more often, travel to see 11 more USA states, sleep 8 hours every night, teach more VIPKID students, introduce more people to the benefits of Young Living and blog more often. While these are all things I wish I did better, to make all these changes at once would be overwhelming and disheartening when I ultimately failed. Instead, I am going to stay focused on decluttering my RV. This focus on one goal for the month of January is more likely to affect a permanent change than all the other New Year's Resolutions combined. And . . . a tidier and more organized home will support all the other changes I want to make in the coming months. 

So, don't set a bunch of New Year's Resolutions. Instead, set 12 monthly goals this year and be amazed at how much your life will change for good.