Easy Tricks for Keeping Resolutions in 2023

Happy New Year everyone! 

As we all say “goodbye” to 2022 and “hello” to 2023, I know many of us are thinking about the whole “New Year, New Me” thing that we see on social media and thinking about possible resolutions that we can make.

But the big question is, how many of us are actually going to maintain those resolutions past January? Or even past the first few weeks? So many people try to make a commitment to working out each year and end up forgetting about the membership they bought or canceling it because they don’t think they have the time to go to the gym a few times a week.

If you want to create a resolution this year and stay dedicated to it all year, here are a few tricks to stay motivated to keep your resolution.

First, think about your goal. Is this a big goal that is going to take time? Is this a goal that is going to benefit you in the long run? Is this goal healthy? 

Once you have answered a few questions to define your goal, you can start to think about the path you are going to take to reach your goal. This is going to be crucial to help you keep up the motivation for your goal.

Now, it's time to start planning out the execution of your goal. Start by turning your goal into several smaller goals. This will make the big goal seem less daunting overall especially if you go step by step and reward yourself along the way.

I find it easiest to think of it like a task list that needs to be checked off, and as that list starts to dwindle, there is a lot of excitement that builds up as each item gets checked off. 

Smaller goals are easier to check off as you complete them and the feeling of accomplishment when you reach one, really helps to keep you pushing forward. 

To ensure you complete your goal in a timely manner, planning out a schedule with different checkpoints can help remove a lot of that stress. 

2023 is a whole year for making and accomplishing your goals. Don’t try to push one big goal into just the first month of the year. You will feel rushed and overwhelmed. This might lead to you questioning if it is even worth it to complete the goal. 

A goal that I am working towards in 2023 is gaining more viewers and followers for ATS. I understand that this goal is not going to happen overnight and that I need to put in a good amount of effort to reach that goal. 

Now, as said before, these goals aren’t going to be completed in just one day. But if you can build a habit of working towards your goal every day, you'll get closer to completing it much faster.

Try working your goal into your day-to-day schedule. Think about small things you can do daily that will push you forward.

For example, if you are trying to work out more, try at the very least stretching every day. You will energize your body more if you stretch a bit. A good place to fit this into your schedule is in the morning after you wake up or before going to bed each night. 

I have seen huge benefits from this for my sister who dances. She started fitting in a small workout before bed each night where she does push-ups, curl-ups, planks, and stretching all before bed. She has become more flexible, more confident, and stronger with each day she does it. And she never takes a cheat day. Even on vacation to Disney World this past week, we would be walking a ton and swimming almost every day, and yet, every night before bed, she would do her workout.

From an athletic perspective, the morning is the best time to add steps to your daily routine. If your goal is outside of that, like my big one is, then it might be better to choose a time of day when you feel most productive. But the biggest things are going to be staying consistent and going one goal at a time.

I start to feel a little like I am drowning if I try to change too much at once. This past summer, I tried to wake up earlier, write every day, workout every day, get all my homework done before 5 pm, and still take time to play video games and do things with my sisters. That routine lasted 2 days. I got so burnt out so fast that I dropped one thing after another before even being able to see or feel a result from it. 

Completely flipping your schedule and routine might work for you but that definitely didn't work for me. What worked better was taking one goal at a time and adding it to my routine. Once a habit was built out of it, I started adding in another goal. While this takes a little more time, I felt more accomplished seeing the difference from the start of the fall semester to the end. Now of course, after Thanksgiving, burnout from school hit again and I started to slack a bit, which puts me back at square one for a few of my goals. And that's where staying consistent comes into play.

Think about all of these things and see what works best for you so you can reach all the goals you are aiming for this year.

Happy New Year everyone!!