Making New Year’s resolutions is a wonderful tradition to help you reflect on the past year and set your goals for the upcoming year. But are you setting yourself up for failure? The average person breaks their resolution within 3 weeks of setting it.
Making New Year’s resolutions is a wonderful tradition to help you reflect on the past year and set your goals for the upcoming year. But are you setting yourself up for failure? The average person breaks their resolution within 3 weeks of setting it.
Organize Anything has a list of seven resolutions that commonly get broken to share with you. Because we want you to start the year on the right note, we’ve included some great tips to help ensure you achieve your goals this year.
1. Lose weight. Everyone wants to lose weight, but when you make your New Year’s resolution “I want to lose 60lbs” you’re setting yourself up for failure. Instead of focusing on your long-term weight loss goal, set smaller, easier to manager goals like “I’ll go for a walk twice a week after dinner” or “I’d like to be able to lose a pant size by mid-February.”
2. Quit smoking. Smoking is an addiction and it takes the average smoker 5 attempts to quit the habit completely according to the Canadian Lung Association. Instead of trying to quit cold turkey on January 1st, make an appointment with your family doctor to make a plan to healthily cut smoking out.
3. Get out of debt. Much like the goal to lose weight, resolving to get control of your finances can be such a daunting task that many people quit before they even start. Break it down into smaller tasks such as “creating a budget and sticking to it for a month at a time” or “putting x amount of dollars of payment on your credit card monthly...”
4. Be less stressed. Don’t get stressed out about your lack of time to de-stress! Make sure you succeed in this resolution by setting aside dedicated time at least once a week that is completely free of commitments. Save 30 minutes in your day planner every day to sit and enjoy your own company.
5. Volunteer. After the luxury of the holiday season, you may be inclined to volunteer more, but it’s easy to forget this resolution when the snow is howling outside and the Christmas credit card bills come back. Instead of volunteering your time, consider donating supplies or food to a charity. Suggest a charity outreach program at your office – it’s a great way to promote corporate social responsibility at work and you may get a Friday afternoon off to help an organization in your community!
6. Spend more time with your family. With the kids loaded down with extra-curricular activities, bringing your work home with you and the general chaos of trying to juggle it all, this resolution can quickly fall to the wayside. Try combining a few resolutions to achieve this goal! Why not volunteer as a family or take a class together?
7. Make more resolutions. This will more likely have you burned out before you achieve many of your goals. Focus on one or a few and make a plan. Concentrate on a very few. When you are on track with those add some more into the mix - no matter what time of the year it is. And remember if you fall off a bit just get back on track as soon as you can.
Whenever you feel overwhelmed trying to achieve big successes with your New Year’s resolutions, break them down into smaller goals. When you only focus on the long-term goals you miss the smaller achievements it takes to get there.
Celebrate the small victories and avoid big disappointments by leaning into what you want and starting with small, achievable goals.
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“Colette's approach is unique in that she offers a holistic approach. By looking at the big picture first, she guides you to define your path to be successful on your own terms. Colette provides best practices and goal setting techniques, theory and measurements, but what I especially enjoyed was that I had to do all the work myself! Making me focus on challenges from a present and future perspective put me in the driver's seat!”
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Did you know that we have lots of other newsletters posted on our website and blog? If you liked this article, you may enjoy this great article about planning the perfect business trip.
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Did you know that Organize Anything has a YouTube Channel? Click here to watch a great video about living frugally. Strapped for time in the morning? Watch our video about saving half an hour in the morning.
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