As a new year begins, so do promises to eat better, lose weight, quit smoking and exercise more. Millions of Americans will make at least one resolution as the new year gets underway. But historically, the vast majority of those resolutions eventually fall by the wayside.
Research has found that only 9% of people actually achieve their resolution goals each year. And 43% give them up before the end of January.
There are many reasons why people abandon their good intentions so quickly. Making too many resolutions, picking goals that are too far-reaching and setting unrealistic expectations can all set you up for failure.
The good news is that with some careful planning and smart strategies, you can buck the trend and make resolutions that stick.
Start with SMART resolutions
As you’re trying to decide what types of health goals to set this year, you should run them through the goal-setting process called “SMART.”
SMART stands for:
- S: Specific. Make sure your goal is hyper-focused. Instead of “eat healthier,” try something like “eat two more servings of vegetables every day.”
- M: Measurable. Know what success looks like for your goal and make sure you can measure its progress.
- A: Achievable. Set yourself up for success by picking a goal that you know you can reasonably achieve if you stick with it.
- R: Realistic. Be honest with yourself about what you can manage with your current lifestyle and resources. If you know that hitting the gym every morning will conflict with getting the kids to school, create a goal that better fits your schedule.
- T: Time-bound. Set some time boundaries around your goal. Decide if it’s something you want to accomplish in a month or throughout the year.
Once you know you’ve made the right resolutions, now it’s time to turn them into habits.
Break down your goals
It makes sense that the smaller the goal, the easier it is to achieve. Telling yourself that you’re just going to “be healthier this year,” is a lot less likely to be successful than saying, “I’m going to eat less sugar.”
If you do have a big goal you want to achieve — such as losing 50 pounds or quitting smoking — figure out a way to break it into smaller, interim goals. That could mean setting specific time milestones for losing 10 pounds or for cutting out five cigarettes from your daily habit.
It’s also important to celebrate those mini-goal successes. Reward yourself — with a massage, a visit to a friend or going to see a new movie, for example — each time you reach one of these milestones.
Integrate new habits into your current routine
One of the reasons new health habits often don’t stick is that you don’t know how to fit them into your routine. If you’ve never exercised regularly before, it can feel daunting to suddenly find time in your day for a workout. To make exercise a habit, you need to figure out how to integrate it smoothly into your current routine.
If you’re a morning person, use that extra morning time to hit the gym or do a virtual class at home. Or link up your lunch break with a walk around the neighborhood. Better yet, get your family involved. Start a new after-dinner tradition of doing something active together.
Be consistent
The best way to make new habits stick is to keep doing them. Make yourself a schedule that’s specific in terms of when, what and how much you need to do every day to achieve your health goal. That might be taking 10,000 steps a day, eating two extra servings of veggies each day or skipping the cigarette with your coffee each morning. Hold yourself accountable for doing the work every day, and soon you’ll see it turn into just a routine part of your day.
Be flexible when you need to
One of the reasons people fail at New Year’s resolutions is that they’re often too rigid. And when you can’t live up to your own high expectations, you simply give up. Instead of throwing in the towel for good simply because you skipped the gym or ate cookies instead of carrots, take a minute to reassess.
Writing off those slip-ups and moving on keeps you on the road to successfully achieving your goals. Accept that you’re not perfect (who is?) and keep going. Recommit to your goal and do what it takes to get back on track.
Track your progress
Use a journal, a calendar or an app on your phone to keep track of the new habits you’re trying to put in place. Seeing your streak of success can help establish that habit as part of your new daily routine.
By following these strategies, you’ll see that holding onto your resolutions — and turning them into lifelong healthy habits — is very achievable.
