The time between Christmas and New Years means three things: One, planning your outfit to finish off your year in style (no matter how much you struggled, you don't want people to see that): Two, figuring out which New Years Eve party you're attending (are your friends throwing one? are you throwing one? are y'all just going to hit the town and hope for the best?). And three, figuring out your New Years Resolutions.
New Years Resolutions are our way of saying "We are motivated at the start of this new year!" But just like with the beginning of a new semester, a few days or weeks go by and your motivation disappears. It's for reasons like this that many people are against New Years Resolutions. They know there's no hope that they will last past Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So instead of admitting defeat, they just choose not to make one.
There is a way to have a New Years Resolution (or a few) and stick with them.
1. Don't think of them as resolutions.
The reason we make resolutions is due to the idea that it's a new year, so it's a new me. Well, how many times have we thought about change, but when it's in the middle of the year? Why wait until the start of the year to make a change? If you're motivated to change make it happen, whether it's January 1 or August 21. If you think of them as goals to reach rather than resolutions to follow, chances are you will stick with it.
2. Be rational.
One of my resolutions that I made every year in high school but failed to make last past the first month was to do 100 crunches every day. 100 crunches every day for 365 days, that can be a hard resoltuion to have. What's the end goal? Well, to get a toned up core, but that wasn't on my mind. With the process rather than the end result on my mind, I couldn't follow through. So have an end result, and then think of the steps to achieve that result.
3. Know that you will fail.
Not at the resolution as a whole, don't get me wrong and say I'm hypocritical. The reason I gave up was because I missed out on one day of doing my 100 crunches. If I allowed myself to accept some days off, I could've lasted much longer. If your goal is to eat more veggies and less chocolate but end up bingeing on Hershey's one day, allow it to not throw you off. Instead, use that as extra motivation to make sure it doesn't either happen again or frequently. The closer you stay on track, the quicker you will see results, but we are human. We aren't perfect, and we will screw up. Just accept it and move on.
4. Enlist help and support.
I see many people whose resolution is to hit the gym more, but go alone and therefore lose motivation to go. Find a buddy who not only will encourage you on your track, but will join along. It's a great way to bond, keep each other in line, watch each other progress, and achieve your goals.
5. Reward yourself.
Is your goal to lose weight so you can fit into a certain dress? Using your small steps to lead to the big picture, give yourself a time frame, let's say two months. Know where you want to be in two months (whether you could fit in the dress yet or not), and if you reach your checkpoint, go buy the dress. It's your way of telling yourself you had come this far already, so keep going forward and don't look back. It will give you extra motivation now that it's hanging in your closet. Then do it again. Rewarding yourself is a great way to look back on how you've progressed, but also to keep motivating yourself to keep on with your work ethic into the future.
Happy 2017 and Happy New Years (Resolution-making)!
