How to keep your New Year’s resolutions

Whilst a new year seems like the perfect time for self-improvement, according to Drive Research, 38% of adults make New Year’s resolutions each year, but only 9% stick to them all year long. Understandably, change isn’t always a walk in the park, but with our easy tips, you’ll have the best shot at keeping up with your goals for the coming year.

Choose a specific goal

Be more concrete than ambiguous when setting goals. For example, if you want to be healthier, be specific – do you want to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet? Do you want to drink more water? Exercise more? You have a better starting point if you define exactly what it is you want to do.

Limit your resolutions

If you take on too many, it’ll be harder to stick to them, and as a result, you may end up dropping them all. Therefore, it’s better to choose a few small and achievable goals as, over the year, this will give you the biggest results - some may even opt for just one New Year’s Resolution.

Write your goals down

Write down your goals and keep track of your progress. This will motivate you to keep going. Over the recent years, vision boards have become a popular way to keep your goals in mind every day. There are also mobile apps such as Moldiv so you can access your goals every day, no matter where you are.

Create a detailed plan

You’ve set your key resolutions—great! But what’s a goal without a plan? If you know exactly how you’re going to achieve your goal, you’re more likely to stick to it. Your detailed plan should include things you can do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to get closer to your overall goal.

One at a time

If you have three New Year’s Resolutions, you might think of starting them all on the first day of the year. This may be common practice, but it isn’t necessarily a good idea. Acting on one resolution at a time, then starting on the next once you’ve established a solid routine, will allow you to pace yourself, and prevent you from giving up altogether.

Have an accountability buddy

You’ll be surprised how many of your friends have at least one of the same New Year’s Resolutions as you. So why not share each other’s progress and hold each other accountable? This will motivate you to stay on track and even make achieving your goals more fun.

Reward yourself

Even the smallest achievements deserve to be celebrated. If you give yourself a little reward every time you make progress, you’ll not only feel better about yourself, but this will also motivate you to keep pushing towards the next milestone. This will also ensure you’re tracking your progress. Rewarding yourself with a pair of sunnies? Check out these new arrivals:

Here’s an honourable tip: don’t give up. We’re only human, so getting sidetracked or losing motivation can happen more often than not. If this happens, don’t be hard on yourself—just try to get back to it when you can, and remember that change is a process.

Chasing better health for the new year?

Don’t forget about your eyes! Looking after your eyes is crucial to preventing eye damage and, in some cases, vision loss. Kickstart your year by booking an eye test, and support good eye health with food and exercise.