Psychological Tricks To Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions And Stop Failing
Every year do you set a long list of New Year’s resolutions and never fulfill them? Make this year different. Discover the most effective psychological tricks to achieve this.
He new Year It has a very special magic. In a metaphorical sense, the counter is set to 0, and we have another 365 blank pages to fill with experiences, memories, anecdotes and much more. The last days of the year are the best time to establish a list of resolutions that we want. Thus, we begin January with a great amount of enthusiasm and energy, convinced that this will possibly be our year.
If you are regulars at the gym, by now you will have realized that in January, and especially the first weeks, it has become a hive of activity in which finding a free machine is little less than a mission Impossible However, in February it seems that the volume of people begins to decrease, and in March we only find committed members who follow their usual routine.
So much so that statistics tell us that less than 10% of people comply with their new Year’s resolutions a devastating figure that leads us to wonder why the failure rate is so high.
One of the first steps in establishing good new year’s resolutions is to comply with parameters that make these goals possible.
1. Try to make your list of New Year’s resolutions realistic
Unless you are a language genius, if you don’t have a clue about English, proposing to speak like a native is probably not something easily affordable, in the same way that if you earn a modest salary it is not easy to save up to go on vacation in a five-star hotel. stars in the Bahamas. We often set goals that are too high for ourselves, and not achieving them causes us to become discouraged. Start by trying to think with purposes that are within your possibilities, such as being able to speak English or going on vacation to an island a little closer.
2. He who covers a lot, squeezes little
Each one of these New Year’s resolutions It entails energy, change and discipline. Creating new routines is not easy. That’s why try to keep your goals, especially if they are demanding like getting in shape or getting on with languages, few and specific. “I’m going to lose 10 kg” is a much better goal than a generic “I’m going to lose weight,” and it allows us to track whether we are fulfilling it or not.
Good intentions are very good, but they often get stranded in the world of ideas. How can we make them materialize? With an action plan. When you find your resolution for the new year, ask yourself: how am I going to achieve it? Maybe you start attending a language school twice a week to work on your English, take your children to play basketball every Sunday, or replace breakfast cookies with a few pieces of fruit. To reach the end, we need a means.
4. Every purpose fulfilled entails a resignation
Especially when it comes to new activities, acquiring a new habit means abandoning or replacing an old one. Maybe to go to your English classes you have to give up taking a nap, or taking your children to the movies on Sundays means stopping making plans with your friends that day. Above all, be clear about what you are going to give up to make room for that new routine and consider if you are willing to do it.
5. Don’t be guided by all or nothing
“Wow, this week I haven’t been able to go to the gym, I’m the worst.” This thought, while punitive, is not so bad in and of itself. The really bad thing comes the following week, when you say “Bah, totally, I didn’t go last week, it doesn’t matter if I don’t go this week”.
“It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, it matters how many times you stand up.”
old proverb
If you haven’t been able to go to the gym one week or haven’t found the energy, just go ahead and try next week. Our new Year’s resolutions They are not commandments, they are not engraved in stone. We will fail, we will stumble and we will fail to fulfill them, but what counts at the end of the day is whether we follow the path of their fulfillment or not.
6. Reward yourself for your success
If no one recognizes how hard it is to establish new habits in our lives (or not enough), it will be in our hands to do so. Before drawing up the action plan, think about a reward. It can be something tangible, like a chocolate bonbon or that beer you like so much, or on the contrary, a pleasant activity like taking a walk or taking some time to read. Reserve that reward for the moments in which you have completed the actions you lead to your purposes, such as having attended all the English classes of the week or having saved a certain amount of money after a month. In this way, the process of meeting your goals is much kinder and more benevolent.
7. Do it for you
Studies show that people who are externally motivated, that is, those who diet or go to the gym just to be more attractive to others, or those who quit smoking because someone asks them to, hardly stick to their goals. goals. On the contrary, those who are internally motivated (they exercise because they like it, diet or quit smoking for their health) are the ones who manage to maintain their long-term goals. It is for this precise reason that you should create the new year’s resolution list thinking only of yourself and not to prove something to others.
In order to fulfill your list of year’s resolutions new you must have good mental health. Having willpower or motivation is not enough if you have some gaps in your emotions. For this reason, going to a psychologist to improve your weak points can be a good bet to achieve each of your New Year’s resolutions.
Why is it important to make a list of New Year’s resolutions?
If we do not want to go through life without realizing what we have done, it is important to be able to take stock what path we are taking, where we are going and whether we are walking in the right direction or whether we have to recalculate the route.
Many times we act by cutting fire, we simply go through life without a fixed direction. And many times we realize that the life we ​​lead is not the one we want when it is too late to make changes or when something happens to us that paralyzes us or makes us reflect (such as a serious illness or the death of a family member).
Sometimes when someone dear and young dies after a serious illness, we think about their life and add a phrase like: “What a shame, with everything he had left to do in life” and then we begin to put ourselves in that person’s place and weigh: “I have to make changes in my life, if they told me I had a few months left, I wouldn’t want to die with the life I lead now”. Let’s not wait for that moment, taking stock at the end of the year helps to take control of one’s life, to assess what has been achieved, what remains to be achieved and to consider changes for the following year through a list of purposes
So, make a end of year balance It helps us to be participants in our own lives and active agents instead of passive subjects who go with the flow.
How and when is it appropriate to take stock of your year-end resolutions?
1. There is no need to wait for the last day of the year
It is common to leave this list until December 31, but between work, having to get ready for New Year’s Eve dinner and various preparations, you may not dedicate the time that this moment requires. That’s why you can take stock during these last weeks or even facing the first days of next year. The important thing is to dedicate the time it requires so that the exercise has meaning and does not become a magazine exercise but rather something that emotionally gives you a direction.
2. Value the achievements obtained
When we do the end of year balance We tend to value what has happened to us negatively but we rarely dedicate the same time to think about the achievements we have obtained and the goals achieved. For it to be a balance, there have to be positive and negative things; It is like if you make a balance of expenses and income, not only can you put the expenses you have had, but you must also put the income to assess whether you have had losses or gains. Well, emotionally we have to do the same exercise, value what you have achieved, the goals achieved, the steps forward you have made in some aspect of your life, etc. Do not value only what has already been achieved but also the small advances. For example: if you only value having completed a university degree, you will spend years of your life as a frustrated student. However, if you value the subjects you have passed during the last year, perhaps you will be more motivated to continue studying and improve yourself for next year.
Make an assessment of the mistakes made in your previous list of purposes and try not to beat yourself up too much with them. To avoid punishing yourself excessively, think about what needs to be done differently so that next year you don’t have to remember the same negative aspects of your life again. Appreciating mistakes helps change the situation, so be aware of them and consider changes.
4. Set new goals
The year-end balance goes hand in hand with the new Year’s resolutions Are you on the path you want? Then it’s just keep walking. If, on the other hand, you feel that the life you lead is not the one you want to have (in some aspect or in several), it is time to set new goals and start fighting to achieve them little by little.
5. Check your balance from time to time
It is good to make this assessment in writing because it helps to be more aware and to be able to make reviews every X months. Forgetting about it until next December 31 is not the same as keeping it in mind over the months. That way you won’t have wasted years, since you will always be aware of the path to follow and you will be able to get back on track faster than if you review it once a year. Remember that you yourself have the keys that open the doors to your happiness. You just have to remember that you have the bunch, try and memorize which key opens each of those doors.
Every time we start with new purposes We do it with the best of intentions but often we soon lose sight of that objective and we get carried away. We lose the initial motivation, and little by little our purposes become a dead letter.
It would be good to ask yourself: What is the reason for making this change in my life? Each one will have to see if the benefits outweigh the harms, otherwise it will be very difficult to achieve. On the other hand, it is good to know that what is planned facilitates its fulfillment, so in order to make a good plan We will have to ask ourselves questions like:
How am I going to carry it out?
Can I do it myself or do I need someone’s help?
Can I do it at home or do I have to travel?
What time do I have to dedicate to it?
What complications can arise?
It is proven that action precedes motivation; That is, the sooner you start fulfill your list of new year’s resolutions, the more motivated you will be to continue. Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today! A good trick is to share your resolutions with friends and family. In addition to encouraging you to achieve them, by sharing, you will have your goals more in mind.
