Tips on Achieving your New Year’s Resolution
The 1st of January. The day when local gyms are flooded with motivated people, wishing to build new habits. As 2023 announces its arrival, many have already made promises to do better — to achieve new goals.
However, how many really achieve their new year’s resolutions? According to a study done in 2016, only a measly 9% of people achieve their goals. But, before you tell yourself: “Well that’s depressing, might as well just give up now,” there are actually many things you can do to increase your chances of being in that 9%. Read on to find out some compilations of strategies you can follow.
Make Your Goals Specific
Research has shown that 90% of the time, those who make their goals specific exhibit higher performances. In order to do so, try to eliminate any vagueness in your new year’s resolution. For example, instead of “lose 10kg”, set checkpoints along the way and list out what you need to do to accomplish it.
Write out things such as “lose 1kg by January”, “reduce fast food intake”, “exercise for 30 minutes every day”, etc. When you have clarity in your goals, it helps you plan what to do and it makes it all the more achievable.
Make Your Goals Realistic
Having extremely challenging goals that make others go wow when they hear about it may give you that short-term satisfaction, but not being able to achieve it at the end of the year may bring regret. It may also affect your self-esteem making you unwilling to make any future goals.
Hence, do your research on what others have done and evaluate their achievements in the context of your own personal conditions, and set goals that are realistic and achievable in a year. It may also be helpful to lay out your year plan and ask for a second opinion from a friend, family member, or even an expert on whether it is realistic and attainable.
Make Your Goals Challenging
Don’t make your goals so easy that you can flick a finger and achieve it. Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman said that it is the process of working towards a goal and finally achieving it that releases dopamine and makes us feel accomplished.
Realistically, if you could simply flick a switch and achieve a goal, there wouldn’t be a point in setting goals in the first place. So, just like anything in life, you want the difficulty of your goal to be in the Goldilocks zone; not too difficult, but not too easy at the same time.
Optimize Your Environment
Human nature is to procrastinate and give up when facing challenges. To avoid being a victim of such behavior, it’s beneficial to have a support system to provide you with constant feedback and to keep you accountable for your decisions.
No matter how good you think you are, you will benefit from having an extra source of input, it could be your friend or a family member. All in all, surround yourself with those that will keep you focused on your goals and support you when you’re in a pit.
Separate Your Goals Into Chunks
It might be daunting to have a large goal sitting in your mind, waiting to be completed. It may seem as if anything you do in the direction of the goal is minuscule and that might discourage you. However, having stepping stones that track to your larger goal, may give you the necessary satisfaction and dopamine rush to continue your pursuit. Of course, those small goals should have their own deadlines too so you don’t go off track.
A perfect example is how having a goal of saving RM 5000 a year is scary to most, yet saving RM100 a week may seem more doable. Although it is important to have challenging goals to make you work towards them, it is also important that you don’t fall off the bandwagon 1 month into it due to the lack of observable progress. Besides, constantly having a goal to meet, helps us build habits that can further help us achieve our end goal. On this note Aristotle summarises it best: “We are what we do repeatedly”.
Enjoy What You’re Doing
It’s extremely important that you love what you’re doing, after all, you’re going to be doing it for quite a while. Whatever your goal is, make sure that your approach to it is something that you can be consistent with and something that you won’t dread doing. If you hate what you do, it’s very unlikely you will put up with it over a long period of time.
Before diving into the goal, do not go into it with the mindset that you will hate what you’re doing as the nocebo effect will be strong there. Instead, be more open with your approach, try new things and perhaps you may develop a liking towards the journey you take to reaching those goals. In the end, consistency is key and there’s nothing better for that than doing something you love day in and out.
Know Your ‘Why?’
It is crucial that you know the reason behind every goal you set. If there’s no reason behind your goal, when you face obstacles, you will most likely surrender to defeat making your goals redundant at that point.
To battle this, jot down the reasons behind your goals, and have them at the back of your mind at all times. Then, when you’re facing difficulties, remind yourself of why you started in the first place and push through those hardships.
New year’s resolutions may seem daunting to people, especially after the new year high has subsided however, there are many approaches we can take in order to ensure we reach our goals. Every year, we say: “new year, new me”, but hopefully this year, our new year’s resolutions will come true, and together we’ll be the best version of ourselves.
By: Jared Ong Kang Jie
