Setting new year’s resolutions is a practice that many people adopt. The new year is often regarded as a fresh start, an opportunity for people to change bad habits and establish new routines. 

While the start of the new year is a great time to look at areas we would like to change, keeping resolutions throughout the year is a whole different matter and is definitely not as easy as creating them. In our last article, we provided tips on how you can set your goals effectively. This time, let’s look at how you can keep your resolutions going!

Minimise the Pressure when Setting Goals

Goal setting helps provide direction for where you want to go in life. It can help you visualise what you are striving towards and help you plan the steps you must take to get there. That being said, setting goals can also come with a lot of pressure as expectations to fulfill them can be high. 

At times, these pressures and expectations may prevent us from achieving our best. Rather than overwhelming yourself and worrying about the need to accomplish your resolutions, think of them instead as practice for greater changes in life! Resolutions can be fun, low-pressure goals. When you start out without the stress and learn to enjoy the process instead, it is more likely that you will keep up with your resolutions.

Create Time to Reflect

Stress and overworking are common social issues in Singapore. People rarely take the time to slow down and properly assess the impact of their actions. This results in them getting side-tracked and eventually abandoning their resolutions over time. Hence, it is good for us to take time out to reflect and re-evaluate our goals. Once we reflect and realise what has been working and what needs to be improved, we can better work on ourselves and be inspired to keep our resolutions.

Reward Yourself

Rewards are a great motivator in helping you to follow through with your resolutions and goals. Celebrating every small progress and victory can motivate you to keep up with your efforts. When you have something to look forward to every time you accomplish something, it gives you more purpose in achieving your goals.

Think of your Goals as Positive Change

Perceiving your goals as things you must achieve can make them seem like a chore. This may deter you from keeping your resolutions. Instead, try looking at them from a different perspective. In the grand scheme of things, your goals are there to help you make positive changes. Resolutions can serve as a catalyst for positive change, improving different aspects of your life such as your personal health or relationships. According to an online survey¹, the most popular resolutions in 2021 included improving fitness, saving money, and improving diets, all of which revolve around positive change.

Resolutions help you to prioritise, clear your mind and focus on who you want to become. Even if we are unsuccessful in making all the changes we aim to achieve, setting goals keeps us in focus and enables us to take steps forward. It is this change of mindset towards goals that can help us stick with our resolutions to the end.

New year’s resolutions are a great way to start making positive changes to our lives, and sometimes, a simple change of mindset is all it takes to keep us persevering through our goals. For those who have yet to create your new year’s resolutions, it is still not too late to do so! Remember to set realistic and achievable goals, be patient in accomplishing them and most importantly, tackle them with a positive attitude! 

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¹ https://discoverhappyhabits.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/#2021-statistics