There are certain moments in our lives where we take stock of where we are, and where we want to end up. It can happen when we move to a new city, or get over an illness, or see a powerful piece of art, or hold a baby.
In these moments we take a step back from the distracted noise of the world and we ask ourselves the important questions.
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How am I doing?
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Am I on the right track?
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What can I do to make a bigger impact?
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How can I be healthier?
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What can I do to live my best life?
New year’s day - the turning of the calendar from one year to another - is the most powerful “take stock” experience of many people’s year. And it happens to all of us. We have that moment of insight, we start asking ourselves those questions, and we “resolve” to make some changes.
But too often a new year’s resolution fails to create lasting change, even though we might really want or need the change. This happens for lots and lots of reasons. Let’s run through some of them, and more importantly, three tools you can use in 2021 to make your new year’s resolution stick.
Tool #1 Get Your Reasons Right
Identifying why you want to make changes is going to help you stay motivated. Take a moment as you’re reading to write down three reasons why you want to keep your new year’s resolution.
Maybe you want to fit back into those old jeans. Maybe you want to be healthy enough to go on a walk with your grandchildren. Maybe you want to earn more so you can volunteer more of your time helping others. These are all motivations for you to keep that resolution.
Here’s an important thing to remember: Your reasons are your engines. Pick powerful reasons for making changes, and those reasons will help you push through low moments of willpower and the inevitable challenges you’ll face as you try to make your new year’s resolution a reality. Pick weak reasons, or no reasons at all, and you are bound to fail.
In general, the more specific and vivid you can make your reasons in your mind, the more powerful engines they will be.
Tool #2 Make a Clear Goal and Remind Yourself of it Daily
We humans have a tremendous, horrendous ability to forget what is good for us. We can have a powerful moment of clarity on new year’s eve, and decide to make a ton of changes, and then forget it completely two weeks later. Or sometimes even two hours later :) We’re forgetting machines.
So how do you fix a forgetting machine? That’s easy. You keep reminding yourself! You turn into a reminding machine. Write down your exact goal for your new year’s resolution, and make it something measurable. Like fitting into those jeans. Or reaching that personal best. Make it something reachable, and attainable.
Don’t make vague goals “get in the best shape of my life” and don’t make unreachable goals like “run a mile in 4 minutes”. In order to have success, make your resolutions clear and reachable.
And, most importantly, write them down! Put them in a place where you will see them everyday. You can even create a personal habit of reading your resolution to yourself out loud every morning.
If you actively work to remind yourself of your resolutions, you’ll be far more likely to remember why you wanted them so badly in the first place. And that will help you achieve them.
Tool #3 Build a Structure of Accountability
It’s so much harder to do it alone. People who are successful keeping their new year’s resolutions build teams to help them accomplish their goals. They let other people know what they are doing.
Something magical happens when you let other people know you are trying to be better, and you share with them your specific goal: they RUSH in to help. Why? Because nothing makes us feel better than helping others. Give it a try.
Also, nothing makes us follow through like having people tracking our progress. Last week we shared that studies (1) have shown that accountability helps women lose weight.
Do you have people in your life who can be your accountability buddies? People that can help you stay on track? Do you have a supportive community? We hope you do, and we hope you reach out to let them help. In reality, you’re doing them a favor, as helping others makes us all feel better.
Dr. Juan created the Santo Remedio Diet to bring together a community of thousands of people dedicated to making their health a priority and their new year’s resolutions a reality. Come and join us! It’s free and it’s a fantastic community.
But even if we don’t see you there, we’re rooting for you. Use these three simple tools to help make 2021 the year you finally keep your resolutions.
Let’s get healthier together,
Your friends at Santo Remedio
