5 Tips to ACTUALLY Nail Your New Years Resolutions and Accomplish Goals
75% of New Year’s resolutions only last one week!
Only 8% of them stay for the whole year.
Maybe you made New Year’s resolutions, maybe you make year-long resolutions, or maybe you don’t believe in them at all. Well, if you did decide to make some changes in your life whether it be to improve on your volleyball tactics, lose 15 lbs or spend more quality time with friends, here are some ways on how to ACTUALLY accomplish sticking with them and not quit on them like the 92% who do.
- When you say “yes,” you equally have to say “no.” Whether we realize it or not, our days are pretty much full. Even if we spend 3 hours at night just watching t.v. or playing on our phones, we’ve developed patterns that fill our lives. So when we take on changes by saying “yes” to going to the gym or by making quality time with friends, we need to realize that we’re saying “no” to other things and intentionally decide what those things are. If I’m trying to make a change in my life that will take 5 extra hours, where am I going to get those hours from? Will I get up one hour early 5 days a week? Maybe I will make sure to cut out 1 hour a day of t.v. Whatever it is, know that every new change in your life will take away something else. Make the decision to be ready for this. Usually after a week or maybe a whole month of adding a new goal to your life, those things you have been saying “no” to start popping back up in your life, nagging at you to come back to them. Recognize this, remember that you chose to say no to it in order to say yes to your new changes.
- Get specific about your goals. If you want to improve on volleyball tactics, what is it going to take to get there? Are you going to hire a coach? Are you going to go the gym to work up jumping higher and spiking harder? If you’re going to spend more quality time with friends, make a plan on how to do this. Maybe this means contacting them on a daily basis asking them how they’re doing. Maybe this means making every Tuesday and Thursday nights your hang out nights with friends one-on-one. Make goals measurable. “Losing weight” isn’t measurable but “losing 15 lbs” or “working out 4 days a week” is.
- Substitute habit for habit. Realize first, that we really are creatures of habit and it will take thought and time to change the ones we’ve got. 40% of our day is spent doing something of habit. If there’s something that you’re choosing to give up in your daily life, such as sugar, replace it with something that is rewarding like eating your favorite healthy snack. Have that on hand so that every time you crave something sugary, eat that snack instead. Soon, your mind will associate that craving you feel for the snack instead of for the sugar.
- Congratulate yourself daily. Each day that you successfully made your change(s), know that this is a big accomplishment. Take it day by day. And if you fail one day, don’t quit. Start fresh and go at it again as if you never failed.
- Imagine. Imagination is powerful and actually creates a path for you to follow to make dreams real. Imagine your end goal(s) being successful, imagine what it will look like in a year if you keep sticking to your plan. Believe that you can achieve and that you WILL do it. Be excited regularly that you’re on a path to improving your life. Believe that you DO have what it takes…because you do.
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