A guide to Effective New Year Resolutions in less than 5 minutes

Have you all been setting goals that are never fulfilled?

Do you always end up breaking your New Year Resolutions?

Have you ever wondered why can’t I?

Seek no more because you are at the right place. This is a guide to set goals and achieve them. We will first talk about what is possibly wrong with your goals, what SMART goals are, and how to manipulate your resolutions to achieve them. In the end, we have an example of an ideal resolution list and some of my personal tips. You will see me using the words goals in replacement for New Year Resolutions a lot.

Biggest Mistakes that we make while setting GOALS/New year Resolutions:

I have seen most people taking resolutions like losing weight, quitting junk food, earning a lot of money at once, etc. All of these are pretty good targets to set but are long-term goals. New year Resolutions are set to be achieved in the coming full year. However, we end up quitting them in the first few days or months of the year.

The problem with long-term goals is that they look tiresome and we get burnt out thinking that the goal is unachievable. Our lazy instincts come to play and knock us off.

What are SMART🎯 goals?

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals. Some people describe R as Realistic which is almost the same as Achievable. Many of you may have heard of it time and again but let us take a deep dive into what it really means.

Specific: Your goal should not be generalized without having details of it. For example, losing weight is very generalized and does not provide when, how or in how much time you want to do it. So, you should set up resolutions that answer these questions in more detail.

Measurable: You should always have a quantity or a measure to track your progress. If you want to earn money, keep a number on your list. So, what number should it be? Let us try to find out in the next point.

Achievable: The goal you are setting should be realistic. If I resolve to lose 30 pounds a week, it does not even matter if I have that goal on my list. I already know that it is next to impossible. It may be achievable for some but not under ordinary circumstances. The same goes in the case of money. I can dream to be a billionaire and it may still be possible but keeping such a goal may leave me depressed.

Relevant: Never set goals that may mean nothing to you tomorrow or anytime over the year. If the goal becomes irrelevant in the advent of you pursuing it, it is a big waste of energy and time. Keep your long-term goals relevant to what you like, or plan for yourself. Think over it.

Time-bound: Time your goals and then try to achieve them. Open-ended wishes never really get fulfilled because whatever you do, you have to do today. There is no tomorrow.

Now the question is How? How are we going to make these goals SMART and head to achieve them?

Make a general outline of your goal. We are going to take the example of quitting junk food. If you try doing it at once, it will make you crave it and you will end up eating a lot. So, now we start breaking this bigger target of quitting junk food into smaller milestones.

I eat out 4 times a week.

I will make it 3, then 2, then 1, and finally stop it.

Hence, now I have 4 smaller goals that seem achievable. I can eat one less meal a week. That is achievable, right?

The measure here is the number of meals.

Is it relevant to the fact that you want to quit junk food? Yes.

Now, we want to put a time limitation on achieving this so that we don’t end up procrastinating. So, I say I want to reduce the number from 4 to 3 in a month. Forget about the next leg here.

Therefore, we come up with our specific goal.

“I will restrict the number of times I eat junk food in a week to 3. I want to achieve this by the end of January.”

Similarly, you can break up practically any goal to make it SMART. With this approach, it is possible to achieve your goal even before the end of the year. But here comes the catch, you need to retain your end goal and grow from there. When you go from 1 junk meal to none, you can not say that you will do it for a month. You should do it within a month and then you have to keep going with it.

The only thing is that now, it is much easier to achieve this goal than to say you will stop eating outside from the 1st of January.

Here is how you can make your New Year Resolution:

Long-Term Goals – By the end of the Year:

1. Lose 25 pounds or more
2. Stop Eating Junk Food
3. Get a High-paying Job as a Chef
4. Increase my income to 100k/year
5. Start Exercising 30 minutes daily

By the end of January/Or any period:

1. Lose 3 pounds
2. Restrict the number of Junk Meals to 3/week
3. Start moving my resume in the network or create a professional network if you do not have one already
4. Find more about passive incomes and start learning one
5. Start from 3 minutes per day and move to 7-8

Once you achieve your goal, you can update them but do not tire yourself by doing more than the set goal in a period. Just try and hold the number till the end of the period.

How to keep motivated to achieve what you started? Here are some tips.

1. Make sticky notes and paste them around the house/office and wherever you are. This will keep reminding you about the goals that you have set up.
2. Subscribe to a service that sends motivation regularly.
3. Make a resolution buddy. The one that wants your best and not the one who will be a partner in crime.
4. ALWAYS remember the reason behind your resolution.

Happy New Year and Best of Luck with your resolutions

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