6 Tips How To Stick To Your New Year's Resolutions

Are you getting tired of the hype of the New Year’s resolutions? Everybody gets sooo excited and believes that the new year will be different! January – it’s time to change the world!

So, here we are! Another year has past. It’s January again. Again it’s time to start to be a better person! Time to set your personal New Year’s resolutions… YAY!… not.

To be honest I was never a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, especially because people try to be a better person in January, are setting unrealistic resolutions, realize by the 2^nd week of the new year that nothing has changed – same relationship status, same old job, same unit, same bank account.

And that’s how easy we get demotivated and forget about the resolution. Or even worse, we fail and feel bad about ourselves.

BUT THAT’S NOT THE PURPOSE OF IT!

I do not really set resolutions for the new year, but I am a huge fan of setting goals! I try to plan the year by setting goals, which I want to achieve in that year. I differentiate of personal goals and business goals. That helps me to grow and I try to work towards where I want to be by December of this year.

This whole thing should be fun and not something that makes you feel like a loser by February! It can be a really amazing thing to achieve goals in the New Year! Just to make it easier for you and not to lose track, here are a few tips how to make your New Year’s resolutions stick:

1. Set short, mid and long term goals

Create achievable short term goals which help you to achieve long term goals. So cut down your resolutions into small manageable pieces, i.e. if you want to achieve 24k Instagram followers by end of 2016. Break it down to 2000 per month and about 500 per week – mid-term goal (major milestone) could be 12k by July 2016. It’s easier to work towards these small goals.

If you start to write down your goals, work with the SMART principle. The goal must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable (Attainable), Realistic, Timely

Here a small reminder about the SMART model:

2. Make a plan – A goal without a plan is just a wish

Write down for each goal how you are going to achieve it. Create a plan which is realistic and achievable, so you can work towards your goal. Example: If your goal is 500 new followers per week, how are you going to achieve it? Make a plan of how many photos you want to share, what strategies you want to use and who you want to buddy up on Instagram to achieve your goal. Focus on these action steps, this makes it easier to achieve your goals.

3. Share your goals

It is nice to discuss and share the goals with a good friend, family or your mentor who will help you to stick to your goals. I have seen lots of businesses who offered reminder and email services which should help you to achieve your new year’s goals, so you don’t lose track. WorkWhileTravel will offer an online based boot camp to support you and help to achieve your business goals throughout the year, create plans and strategies for your needs! It’s so much easier to stick to your goals, if you work with somebody together on your goals, especially with somebody who wants to see you succeed!

This is a fun way to grow and be in December where you want to be.

4. Celebrate your achievements throughout the year!

This is a VERY important part! This is the major thing why I love setting goals and achieving the goals! You probably have heard of the saying

“WORK HARD, PLAY HARD!”

So, find something you really like to do, something you would super look forward to do, and realize what motivates you. For example, I really love celebrating with my friends and have a huge night out dancing, laughing and just spend quality time with my friends – or after achieving a major goal which took me months of hard work, I love to spoil myself with an amazing scuba diving trip to a stunning island somewhere in the world I always wanted to go to.

Once you found out your best motivation technique, plan for each goal and milestone how you are going to spoil yourself or celebrate it once achieved. Say…, if you achieve 2000 new followers on Instagram by 2nd February, you are going to take a day off and will have an…i.e. adventure day with your partner, party night out in London, great big meal, or whatever makes you feel amazing. Spoil yourself! If you don’t know what for you are doing all this hard work for, it can seem senseless and it won’t be dramatic at all, if you just drop the whole thing.

Keep yourself motivated with celebrating your achievements.

5. Visualize your goals

I have to see my goals regularly otherwise I just forget what I am working towards. I write my goals down, put images towards each goal, and put it on the desktop. Further, I safe all my goals and action steps in my Evernote check list, so I have it always with me.

Additionally, I love to set up scheduled email reminders and motivation mails throughout the year, to remind my future me to stay focused. Further, I do a quick summary email with the headline “Where I want to be and what I want to achieve by Dec 2016” (only bullet points) and schedule this email for 1st December 2016. It’s great fun to get an email from the “past you”.

6. If you break a resolution…

Sometimes, down the track, life changes and it’s okay if you break your resolution or it just doesn’t work out right away. Just don’t wait till next year January to start again from scratch. Forgive yourself, be kind to yourself and review the resolution to a more realistic goal and start to work towards it. I.e. if you want to exercise every day in 2016, but your business is changing and you can’t safe yourself from the workload, as a result you can only exercise once a week – it’s still better then to quit completely and not to exercise at all.

Keep in mind: A resolution or a goal is not a law or tapas (yoga term), it’s adjustable. If things change, just adjust it to be more realistic and achievable for you. My favourite quote to live by is:

“Even if you fall on your face, you‘re still moving forward.” (by Victor Kiam). 

Simply, it is very difficult to change some habits and create new habits as well. Be kind to yourself and don’t try to be perfect within the first 14 days of the New Year. It takes time – on some days you will win and then you should celebrate it! On other days you might fail – see this as an opportunity to learn about what to change in the future instead of seeing a reason to give up.

What are your experiences with New Year’s resolutions and how do you make them stick? Looking forward to your comments below!