5 ways to successfully follow through with your New Year’s resolutions

Making New Year’s resolutions are easy. But keeping them is the real challenge. Here are some tips to help you avoid giving up on your resolutions in 2021:

1. Write SMART goals

Goals can be anything that you dream of. But how feasible they are depends on how SMART they are. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based. Before you set your goals, ask yourself these question from the acronym:

Specific: Define specifically what is it that you want to achieve.

Measurable: What are the criteria that can measure progress and success? Attach an expected timeline for your goals.

Attainable: Even if your goals stretch outside your comfort zone, are they doable and reasonable? You need to be completely honest with yourself and not be deluded by unrealistic dreams.

Relevant: Are they relevant to your values and long-term objectives?

Time-based: What is your goal time frame? Even if your goals are ambitious, make sure they are set realistically within a certain allocated time period. This helps you gain motivation and handle task prioritisation.

2. Add behavioural commitments

Simply having a goal in mind does not help you attain it. You need to put work into realising them. That requires commitment.

Commitment requires self-discipline and takes time to build. With so much commitments already on our plate, it can be hard to add another new commitment to your routine.

This means that you need to be consistent in maintaining the little habits. Say, if you want a toned body in 2021, you will need to commit to exercising for 30 minutes, 3 times a week, and sticking to that until the end.

3. Include an accountable third-party

An easy way to help you achieve your goal, and stay motivated to achieving it is letting a third party know about it. Or perhaps, being around a group of people who share the same mind set as you.

By involving a third party that you trust, your goals can be held accountable. Similarly, being with like-minded people help you strive towards achieving something because of their similar motivations with you.

For example, if you want to start a business in 2021, you need to surround yourself with entrepreneurs who can guide you in your entrepreneurial journey.

4. Reward your small wins

To achieve your goal, you will have to maintain your motivation. And to maintain that motivation, you need to continuously evaluate your progress.

By recognising the strengths, weaknesses at each step, you will know what works and what doesn’t. And when you’ve achieved a small set of milestones, give yourself a small reward. It can be a new blouse, a cake or even a staycation at a hotel you have never been to.

Rewarding yourself will help continuously fuels that desire to achieve the end goal.

5. Enjoy the process

While the end goal is the victory, what truly matters is to enjoy and appreciate the process of reaching your New Year’s resolution goals.

Some make the mistake by being so hard on themselves along the way and only reward themselves once they have accomplished the end goal. If you were once like this, you’ll know how frustrating and daunting that path can be – it may even make you give up on your goal all of a sudden!

So when you are on the path to your next grand goal, don’t disregard the entire journey and stop thinking about the grand prize. Instead, focus on the task at the moment. You’ll certainly be happy and be great at it.