▶ New Year’s Resolutions: 4 Ways To Succeed!

It is natural to reflect at this time of the year, thinking about what went well, what not-so-well and what we would like to do better in the future. The prospect of a new beginning can bring about a wave of motivation – something researchers call the fresh start effect.

It’s been found that landmarks demarcating time, such as the start of each week, month or year, can inspire us to set goals and increase our healthy habits, like going to the gym. The same can apply to other types of events, like public holidays or even our own birthday. Researchers believe that these landmarks help us to feel like we have the chance to start over with a clean slate. They also remind us to pause and take a step back, allowing us to focus on the bigger picture, rather than our day-to-day routine.

But for many of us, the well-meaning goals we set ourselves on January 1st don’t last very long. So how can we increase our chances of keeping this year’s resolutions?

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Top tips for making your resolution stick

1. Be specific

One of the reasons why we might struggle with our New Year’s resolutions is because they are too broad and overwhelming, so we don’t know where to start.

For example, you might set a goal to “eat more healthily”. It sounds simple, but it actually requires you to make multiple difficult decisions:

• What are you going to have for breakfast every day? 
• What about lunch and dinner?
• What about snacks and drinks?
• When will you go shopping? 
• How long will it take you to cook these meals? 
• Do you need a back-up plan in case you are busy or tired?
• What if you crave something unhealthy?

I don’t know about you, but I feel tired just thinking about all of those questions! That’s why it’s often a lot easier to start with something more specific that is easier to do.

Here are some alternative goals someone might consider when trying to eat more healthily:

• Eat some fruit for breakfast 
• Drink orange juice instead of coffee
• Have a small bag of almonds for an afternoon snack
• Add spinach into your weekly pasta
• Buy dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate

To help make your goal more specific, try asking yourself questions using the words “What”, “When”, “Where” and “How”. You can try writing out the specific steps that come to mind as you think about your goal. Once you have those options in front of you, pick just one or two steps to start with. After you master these, you can add more.

It might feel a lot less impressive to say “This year, I am going to eat grapes instead of gummy bears!” – but it makes it much more likely that you will succeed.

2. Make it measurable

Another way to make your goals more achievable is to think about how you could measure your success. This is most easily done in units of time or in other measures specific to your goal. 

For example, you might want to exercise more. As a specific step, you could decide to go for afternoon runs. Now ask yourself: how much and how often could I do this? Perhaps it’s feasible for you to go for a 10min run twice a week.

Formulating your goal in a measurable way makes it easier to track your progress and feel successful at what you set out to do. It also prompts you to think about what’s realistic for your schedule and your lifestyle.

Not every goal can be measured in units of time. For instance, a common New Year’s Resolution is to stop smoking. Some people find it easiest to go cold turkey and just cut out smoking altogether. But others may prefer to gradually reduce smoking in a measurable way. If you currently smoke around 20 cigarettes a day, you could try reducing it to 15. Smartphones have many counter apps available that can help you keep track of this.

Pro tip: Research shows that goals focused on increasing something (“approach goals”) are more effective than those aiming to reduce something (“avoidance goals”). So if you want to reduce a behaviour, like smoking, think about what else you could do instead of it. Then your goal could become something like “Listen to relaxing music instead of smoking when I’m stressed”.

3. Start tiny

Many of us are able to keep up our new habits successfully until we encounter a disruption to our routine. For example, we might get unusually busy, fall ill, or perhaps go on holiday. On these days, we might not be able to go for that 10 minute run, cook a healthy meal, or meditate like we planned. When life gets in the way, we might feel like we have failed – and it can be hard to get back on track. 

This is why the behavioural scientist B.J. Fogg from Stanford University recommends “starting tiny”. That means formulating your habit in a way that is so easy that you could do it even if things don’t go to plan or you’re having a bad day.

As an example, he mentions the goal of doing just one push-up a day! If you are having a good day, you might be able to do twenty push-ups. But on a bad day, the tiny habit is all that you have to do. That way, even if you are going through a difficult time, you are less likely to disconnect from your new habit completely and even if you do, it’s easier to pick it up again later!

A similar strategy is the 5-minute rule. If you’re having a bad day, all you have to commit to doing is just 5 minutes of your chosen activity. If you can’t do more, that’s okay – the important thing is that you’re keeping the habit alive. More often than not though, you’ll find that once you get going it’s a lot easier to do more!

Even if you don’t want to go so tiny with your aspirations, we still recommend making sure that your goals are achievable for you right now.

4. Imagine your success

You may have heard it said, that professional sportspeople often visualise their important race or match before it happens. This can be a very useful strategy, not only because it can motivate you, but also because it can help you realise what obstacles could get in the way.

While you are visualising this, you might also want to think about the factors that could hinder your success. Maybe your goal is to save more money but your partner likes to go on expensive holidays! Maybe you want to do yoga every morning but you don’t actually own a yoga mat. Write down any such obstacles that you can think of, so you can be better prepared to handle them.

On behalf of the Mind Ease team, we wish you a Happy New Year and the best of luck with any resolutions that you make. And remember – if one of your goals is to improve your wellbeing, the Mind Ease app is always here for you!