How to achieve New Years' 'Super' Resolutions

It's that time of year again. Santa has made a list and checked it twice, gifts have been made to order, and distributed. Now it's time for the rest of us to make our own lists. What do we want to change about ourselves in the coming year that for some reason we couldn't do the 365 days prior?

Personally, I could unroll an infinitely long magical scroll listing my desires for personal improvement. However, I can vividly recall from previous years that feeling of failure when I am unable to reach my 'super resolution' dreams. I want this year to be different.

Resolution 1: Find a better strategy for keeping New Years' Resolutions. 

I have several suggestions that I believe may help me to embark on my quest for personal improvement, and hopefully stick to it year round. Read on!

Resolution 2: Limit the number of New Years' Resolutions that you make.

1-3 well thought out resolutions are far better than 10 superficial ones that you are going to forget in 3 days time. Restricting your list to only those most important resolutions will give you more direction and willpower to focus on the things most important to you.

If you're like me, and have a million thoughts drifting through your brain, it may seem a daunting task to stick to minimal resolution plan. How do you know which resolutions you should focus on, and which you should discard?

Resolution 3: Make a list in order of priority. 

Start using Santa's strategy: Make a list and check it more than twice. Write down all those thoughts for self-improvement that have been lurking at the back of your mind. Maybe there's several important list items in there, such as 'lose weight and lower my blood pressure', and some less crucial ones such as 'remember to sweep the path once a week'.

You will need to develop some kind of value system so that you can rank your list in order of priority. Try putting the list away for a few hours. When you revisit the list in your mind, which resolutions pop to mind straight-away?  These should be at the very top of the list.

New Years only comes round once a year, so you should reserve this list for those resolutions that are most important to you. Now that you have prioritised your list, you can re-write the list to include only the most important items and discard the rest. Don't despair at those you've left behind. You may find that the very act of writing down that you need to sweep the path more often has already reminded you to do so, without needing to devote additional brain power.

Resolution 4: Describe your resolution as clearly as possible. 

In my experience, I'm far more likely to achieve a goal if I write out my aims as specifically as possible. For example, if I give myself the common generic aim to 'get fit and lose weight', after a few stagnated attempts to attend gym classes, my willpower soon fails.

Instead something like this might work better: 'I aim to attend 3 gym classes a week', or 'I aim to buy more fruit and vegetables, and will allow myself to buy takeaway meals no more than once a week'.

Resolution 5: Make a plan of attack. 

Here's the important part, where I usually fall down: actually following through with my plans. In my case, I believe that this occurs not necessarily through laziness, but by failing to integrate my plans into my lifestyle in an achievable way.

Know your limits.

The best chance of success is to honestly assess your personality and lifestyle and find the best solution possible. There's no point pretending that you're going to attend the gym every lunch time if you work in a busy office environment, and the sense of guilt and failure when you fail to do so my hinder your progress even further. Or if you like to spend time at home after work, you're unlikely to be able to convince yourself to go to the gym at 6pm, and there's no point setting yourself up for masochistic self-punishment.

Instead, you could specify: 'I'm going to go to the gym in the morning before work twice a week. I'm going to prepare my gym bag the night before so that I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to achieve my goal.'

Etcetera.

Resolution 5: Review your resolutions regularly and update as necessary

Put your resolutions up on the wall in a prominent place, perhaps in the bathroom so that you can review them every morning when brushing your teeth. Your brain is an adaptive organ, and without these little reminders you may soon forget your goals, or place them lower down your list next of other life activities.

'I'm going to measure my fitness, resting heart rate, and blood pressure on New Years Day and then again in March.' We humans need motivation, and there's nothing like a challenge to get you motivated.

 

Summary: Forget 'super resolutions'. Know exactly what you want and how you're going to do it and you will be able to achieve your New Years Resolutions.

Good luck!