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Making a New Year Resolution should be a way for you to look forward to the year ahead. Your resolution should be something that will positively impact your life, mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. The resolution should be something for yourself or those around you. It should be something that has real meaning for you and will help you become a better person.
The key to keeping your resolution seems simple, as we approach the New Year and reflect on this past year with happiness and contentment. However, let us fast forward to January 15th. You are halfway through the first month of the New Year, you’ve slipped up a few times with your resolution, and a few times becomes once a week which then becomes almost daily. Now fast-forward to February. You have almost forgotten what your resolution was, or you have completely abandoned it and it seems silly to try to start over. You are content with the resolution to end the same as in the past, which is, I tried it and it did not work so let us forget about resolutions until next year. Sound familiar?
How to stick with your new year resolution?
I am here to help you make this year different. The most important thing with any New Year resolution, or any goal for that matter, is that it has to be S.M.A.R.T. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Most Americans have it in their mind that they are going to get in shape, lose weight, and will hit the ground running during the New Year. Other popular resolutions are saving more money, spending less, and to fall in love. These are all wonderful and if kept and achieved will definitely make your new year a happy, healthy and pleasant one. However, the reality is they aren’t kept. So let’s take the most popular resolution of getting in shape and/or losing weight for the new year and apply the S.M.A.R.T. model
S – Specific
To achieve your goal you must be specific. You may think that it is simple; I want to lose weight so I am on the right path. Right there you are setting yourself up for failure. How much weight do you want to lose? Making your resolution; lose 15lbs. and then maintain the weight loss, will help you be more successful in your quest and give you a specific goal.
M – Measurable
How do you plan to measure the achievement of your New Year resolution? Losing weight, as we all know is a challenge. We hope and wish it would happen overnight, but it does not. Setting monthly, weekly or even daily goals will help you stay motivated in your quest. Setting a weekly or bi-weekly goal of losing a 1/2lb. or 1 lb. will allow you to see progress in your journey to a better you.
A – Attainable
How do you plan to attain your goal? It is easy to spout off and tell yourself, “I want to lose weight”, but how are you actually going to do it? You may start out by saying I am going to drink only one soda a day, and do some type of physical exercise two times per week. The key is having a plan on how to achieve this goal. As you see the progress and start to feel better, you will likely get motivated to tweak your attainability plan, because you will see results regardless of the goal.
R – Realistic
Is the resolution you set achievable or is it a pipe dream. Regardless of your size, shape, and weight everyone wants to be healthy. You must be realistic about the weight loss goal you set and make sure it is healthy for you.
T – Timely
How long do you give yourself to achieve this resolution? This is a very important step because we are impatient people and want everything to happen yesterday. That is just not how things work. This step works well with the measurable step because as you measure your goals you will set time markers along your way. Therefore, for weight loss, if you weigh in weekly, by months end you should have a specific goal where you would like to be.
No matter what your resolution is and no matter how many times you have failed in past years, the key is keeping it S.M.A.R.T!!! If by chance, you fall off track for a day and feel that New Year resilience slipping away, stay S.M.A.R.T and stay strong. Achieving your New Year Resolution is not an immediate thing but a journey through 2018.
Looking for more great tips? Check out our other blog posts here!
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