The Trick to Keeping your New Year’s Resolutions

The Trick to Keeping your New Year’s Resolutions

Tips for Keeping your New Year’s Resolutions

Keeping your New Year’s resolutions can be tough. Don’t worry, this is true for most people. In fact, studies show that only about 9% of people who set resolutions actually keep them.

However, there’s a trick to it. Here’s what you need to know.

Make them SMART

The key to keeping your New Year’s resolutions is to make them SMART. What does that mean? It means they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.

Structuring your goals in this manner drastically increases your chances of keeping them.

When your goals are specific, you’ll have an easier time making a plan to achieve them and you’ll be able to track your progress better as well. Instead of saying “I want to exercise more”, say “I want to exercise at least three times a week for at least 45 minutes each time.” This will help you stay focused on what you need to do.

That goal is also measurable. You can track whether or not you’re succeeding quite easily, so you can adjust your behaviour if you find you’re not heading in the right direction.

Your goals also need to be achievable. Yes, it’s great to set aspirational goals, but they need to be realistic as well. If you’ve never been a runner, deciding to run a marathon next month isn’t realistic. Deciding to run one next year might be, however. Aim for goals that will be a challenge, but that you can realistically achieve if you work at it.

A relevant goal is one that matters to you. Keeping your new year’s resolutions is easier when your goal is something that you actually want to do.

Finally, your goal needs to be timely. This doesn’t mean you need to achieve it quickly, but it should have a deadline. Saying “I want to be able to run five miles by June” will give you much more motivation than saying “I want to run more” or “I want to run five miles.”

By making your goals SMART, you’ll have a much better chance of keeping your New Year’s resolutions. Need help? Contact us today to set up a free consultation with one of our personal trainers!