Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
The start of a new year seems like the perfect time to make changes: lose weight, quit vaping, try something new, get a fresh start on life, etc. We’re two weeks into the new year and it’s around this time when people are on the brink of giving up, if they haven’t already.
Get to know why you didn’t keep to your resolutions
If you’re like most people, you may feel guilty about breaking your resolutions. Instead, look at your abandoned resolutions as an opportunity to learn a little more about yourself rather than beating yourself up for not sticking to your diet or hitting the gym every day.
Practically speaking, expecting so much change in a single year is unrealistic. Rather than berating yourself for not sticking to your plan, use this as an opportunity to find out what works best for you.
What you can learn from letting go of resolutions:
1. They’re unrealistic
Many times, people draft resolutions that are too challenging or lofty. If this is the case for you, take some time to think about how attainable your resolutions are. For example, if you made a resolution to go to the gym every day, but find that by February you are no longer going at all, it’s probably because you set your goal too high.
Set smaller ones and gradually work up to a bigger goal. Instead of planning to go to the gym every day, maybe go 2 to 3 times per week or try to work out at home for just 10 minutes a day. While 10 minutes may seem insignificant, it’s somewhere to start for you to gradually hit your target.
The key is that you take a look at your broken resolution and try to determine why it wasn’t attainable. Once you do that, you may be able to set more achievable goals.
2. No one finishes a WHOLE list of resolutions. Instead, pick 1 or 2 to focus on
Many people don’t put a lot of thought into their New Year’s resolutions and write down a number of different things like losing weight, reading a book a week, going to the gym, and so on. Instead, by mid-January they find that they have gained weight, are already behind on their reading goals, and haven’t gone to the gym in a week.
Instead of creating a laundry list of resolutions, it’s often better to pick one or two things that you want to change and focus on those.
In today’s hectic world, adding more to your plate is rarely effective. For this reason, you need to prioritize what you want to accomplish and then focus on achieving those goals throughout the year.
3. Goals can be set ANY TIME, not just the start of a year
It’s not necessary to associate growth with just the 1st of January every year – you CAN choose to grow at any point in your life. The opportunity for improvement is available every other day of the year, it’s all about approaching it when you feel best with a positive mindset.
Just because you failed your resolution in the first month, doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait for A WHOLE YEAR till 2023 to actually restart it.
You can even set small resolutions that only take 2-3 months to accomplish them! And yes, you can start working on them immediately, even though it’s the end of January as we speak.
Thoughts impact emotions and behaviours. If something is designed in your head that is negative or restricting, it isn’t going to help you to feel good or motivated to achieve it.
The more you want self-control, the less likely you are to have it.
Try to word your resolutions using positive statements rather than imposing restrictions or implying that something is negative.
It’s natural to assume that a broken resolution shows a lack of focus or commitment. But breaking resolutions is much more complicated than that. Most of the time, a broken resolution simply means that it was the wrong resolution for you.
For this reason, you should take some time to craft them, making sure they’re attainable and easy to understand. If you can meet those two objectives, chances are you’ll soon be making resolutions that reflect what you want to accomplish.
For more stories like this, read: What 2021 Was Like For Malaysia – A Recap Of The Year!
and Why Do Malaysians Make (and Fail) Their New Year’s Resolutions?
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