How Do I Stick to New Year’s Resolutions?

The First Step is to Set Goals Properly

The previous statements are all worthy - but they’re not goals you can ACTUALLY reach. Good goals should have the following characteristics:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant/results-based
• Time-bound

Let’s take an example - let’s say you want to improve your finances. Let’s go through the steps:

Specific

What about your finances do you want to improve? Maybe you want to start saving more.

Measurable

You’ve identified that you want to save, but how much?

Attainable

Find a number that seems achievable to you - perhaps it’s $300 a month. Figure out what feels comfortable for you.

Results-based

Take a look at your budget and see what needs to give in order for that number to be actually relevant. Perhaps you will reduce your shopping budget in order to save that amount of money

Time-bound

You’ve identified that you can save $300 a month for the next year.

Let’s state our New Year’s Resolution:

I will save $300 a month for the next year by reducing my shopping budget. See? We just went from “improving my finances” to that - it feels more realistic already.

Now that I have a goal how do I stick to it?

We’ve got lots of ideas, here are just a few:

1. Create a visual representation of the goal - maybe it’s a post-it note, or a picture you color in every time you put the money towards savings.
2. If you can, put it on auto-pay. Then you don’t even need to worry about it.
3. Don’t binge right before knowing that you plan to buckle down (i.e. don’t eat a bunch of pizza before you plan to go gluten-free), it will make it much harder to actually do the action
4. Get an accountability buddy who checks in on you every couple weeks or once a month to see how you’re doing with your goal. Even better if it’s someone who is on a similar journey
5. Reward yourself at each milestone. Perhaps every time you put the money towards savings, give yourself a dance party or your favorite meal.

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