6 Ways To Commit To Your Resolutions
We set our sights on making a lot of changes all at once, and plunge ourselves into a makeover that we can’t sustain. Rather than a quick sprint to the finish line, though, your resolutions are something you’ll need to practice steadily for days, weeks, and months, for the long haul.
Once you’ve decided what your resolutions are, write them down. Putting your challenges and plans in writing will help you commit to them.
6 Ways to commit to your resolutions
1. Plan to put your habits in place
Once you’ve made your commitments, you’ll need to plan how you can put your new habits into practice.
If you’re working on your eating habits, have you cleared all the junk food out of the house?
If you’re planning to cook more meals at home, do you have the right foods in your refrigerator, pantry, and freezer?
2. Make your resolutions specific
When you put your resolutions into words, make them as specific as you can. It’s great to say that you want to “eat less fat,” but that’s too vague. Instead, you might set a measurable goal to “limit my fat intake to 40 grams a day.”
3. Build a support system
Friends, family members, and online communities can be tremendous sources of support. So, let those around you know what you intend to achieve. And when you offer support to others who need it, it may help you in your own efforts, too.
4. Learn from your setbacks
Rather than letting setbacks defeat you, try to learn from them. Try to figure out what led you to slip up, and figure out how you can prevent it from happening next time.
5. Prioritize your resolutions
If your list of resolutions is fairly long, you might want to prioritize them and tackle a few of the easier ones first. This can help to give you the confidence that you can, in fact, achieve what you’ve set out to do. But if you feel that you’re trying to make too many changes at once, you might need to trim your list a little bit.
6. Build on and reward your successes
If you’ve made behavior changes in the past that have stayed with you, maybe you can build on that success by tweaking your resolution a little bit. And don’t forget to reward yourself for your successes and acknowledge your accomplishments.
