How to create successful New Year's resolutions

With another year, and another decade, coming to a close, it's the time of year where a lot of people evaluate their life and any changes they want to make. But how can you ensure you are successful with making these changes? You can guarantee success by setting great goals, and here's how you do that...

1. Make big goals

If you're making the effort to make a change, make the goal a big one. While it may seem intimidating, by setting a big goal you may not always get to the goal itself, but you will be in a much better position for trying! As they say, if you shoot for the moon, you'll land somewhere among the stars.

2. Break them down into chunks

One way to make a big goal look less intimidating is to break it down into chunks, including daily to-do lists which get you one stop closer to that goal. By taking it in smaller pieces, you can set mini-goals, and hitting these mini-goals will keep you motivated throughout the process.

3. Commit yourself

Don't go into it half-hearted, as you know deep down you will not achieve the goal, and feel even worse. If you're going to set a goal, commit yourself to making the changes needed. If you don't feel like you can commit, maybe you're not ready to make the change, and that's OK! Maybe give yourself some more time so you feel completely in the zone.

4. Reward yourself

We mentioned mini-goals above, and with hitting any goal, big or small, rewarding yourself is key. We don't recommend rewarding yourself with the thing you're avoiding (for example, if trying to lose weight, to reward a pound loss with chocolate), but having a reward will keep you motivated and happy in the process. Even if it's taking a long leisurely walk in your favourite park, or treating yourself to a face mask, there's loads of ways to reward yourself without hindering your progress.

5. Learn from past failures

If there's a particular goal that you go for every year, but fail every time, have a really good look at why you're failing. Is it your environment, the people around you, or is it actually you that are preventing yourself from meeting your goal? You may need to tweak the goal in some way to make it practical, and feasible, for you to hit it. By setting unreasonable goals every year, you only make things harder for yourself.

6. Be thankful for what you can achieve

Don't worry about perfection, just remember why you are making the change. No one out there can do things right 100% of the time, so if you find yourself getting frustrated with yourself, just be grateful that you are able to make the change that you are, and remember that not everyone has the inner strength to attempt the same thing as you.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Did you make any resolutions for 2020? Let us know @office_fruit!