Every year millions of people make New Year’s resolutions, promising that they will change something about themselves that will ultimately improve the quality of their lives. Tragically, each year, many people fail to achieve their resolutions. Maybe instead of wasting so much time trying to come up with quirky, new resolutions, we should focus on making the seemingly cliché resolutions more attainable. After all, they’re cliché for a reason. There is no shame in wanting to accomplish “typical” goals- there’s only something wrong with not seeing them through. If you need a little extra help setting and keeping your reachable resolutions, read on.

1.Sleep More

Common Mistake: You go to bed early a couple of days and try to fall asleep, then you give up and stay up on your phone for an hour or two.

What To Do: Try allowing yourself 7-9 hours a night. If you can't fall asleep, at least let your mind and body calm down. Put your phone down, it won't help you relax.

2. Exercise More

Common Mistake: You buy a gym membership. You go every day for a week and spend a decent amount of time there. Then you remember why you hate working out- it's time consuming and painful!

What To Do: Try to work in 30 minute workouts 3-4 times a week. This is much more attainable and manageable!

3. Drink More Water

Common Mistake: You drink 10 water bottles full of water and feel really good about yourself until you start having to run to the bathroom every 30 minutes. You cool it on the water consumption and forget to drink the appropriate amount everyday until you find your written resolutions under the stack of papers on your kitchen table.

What To Do: Start small and work your way up. If you never drink water, make it a goal to drink 2 bottles one day, 3 bottles the next day, and so on until you reach the appropriate daily water intake for your body. This is a really important resolution to keep becuase water benefits basically every part of your body and is needed for survial.

4. Stop Procrastinating

Common Mistake: You begin working on a task you swore to yourself you were going to start ages ago. You realize that you are unmotivated and remember why you never wanted to do the task. You just accept the fact that procrastination is a part of who you are.

What To Do: Create a list of all the tasks you need to accomplish and write when they need to be done next to them. This schedule will help you become more organized and will give you something to follow. Start your own reward system (no matter how tacky that sounds, it'll help). Reward yourself with food, Netflix, etc. every time you finish a task and this will help motivate yourself.

5. Eat Healthier

Common Mistake: You eat the healthiest foods ever, you deprive yourself of all your favorite goodies, then, you get stressed and you binge on your go-to junk food. After this, you think to yourself, "oh well, better luck next month" and the cycle continues.

What To Do: Ease into it. Start with portion control. This will allow you to eat all your favorite foods, just in smaller quantities. Next, begin reading labels and watching your calories. Try to not eat more calories or carbs than what's healthy for your body. Never starve yourself and don't be too hard on yourself.

6. Keep Things Clean

Common Mistake: You thoroughly clean and organize your room or your desk. You feel great about the way it looks and you promise yourself you'll always keep it that clean. Suddenly, you are frantically looking for something and you make a huge mess.

What To Do: To allow yourself some leeway, set about 1 hour a week aside just to cleaning and organizing your area. This is not much of a time constraint and it will help you from getting too messy during the week.

All of the above can help you lead a healthier life which will ultimately lead to a happier life as well. Just remember that resolutions are all about improving yourself and your quality of life, don't let them ruin all the fun!