UNITED STATES—Why wait until the New Year to start accomplishing your goals? According to statisticbrain.com, about 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions each year and only about eight percent actually achieve them. I don’t know about you, but those numbers don’t sound that great to me. One of the main reasons I think that many people have trouble accomplishing their resolutions, is the fact that they wait until New Year’s Day to try to achieve several goals. Once you fall off track a little, it can be very discouraging and can make you less motivated to continue.
A possible solution to this issue, is to get a head start on your goals. If you wait until New Year’s, you’re already behind. For example, if your goal is to lose weight and you decide that you’re going to wait until the New Year to join a gym, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Think about it, there are probably a lot of people that are thinking the same thing and are going to join the gym in the New Year. Chances are the gyms are going to be very crowded for the first few weeks. Instead, you should try signing up for a membership now because some gyms have several different sales right before the New Year, and you’ll be starting off going in the right direction early. Also, you can try eating sensibly from here on out and treat yourself on Christmas and New Year’s Day. Keep in mind that you don’t want to undo all of your hard work, so try not to go overboard on the holidays.
Another way that could possibly help you achieve your resolutions is to make one or two goals and focus on them. If you set too many goals, it can be a little difficult to keep up. Also, if you don’t accomplish some of them, it can discourage you and you may feel the urge to just give up on your goals all together. But if you focus on just one, you can stay focused far more easily and if you fall off track a little, you can easily get back on track.
Lastly, make mini-deadlines for your goals. Like, if you’re trying to get healthier and lose some weight. Maybe you can set weekly deadlines; you can give yourself a week to lose a pound and adhere to those deadlines. If you’re not meeting your goals on a weekly basis, then you could make some adjustments to make sure that you’re constantly getting closer to accomplishing your goals.
