How To Psychologically Prepare For New Year’s Resolutions
The year 2022 will soon begin and with its beginning many people will be eager to make their own lists of New Year’s resolutions. It is normal that, taking advantage of the digit change, human beings try to redirect the course of our lives.
However, it often happens that many of those resolutions that we so eagerly hope will be fulfilled in the end do not materialize into anything, something that failure to comply with can cause us a lot of anxiety.
To ensure that they are fulfilled, Next we are going to see how to approach new year’s resolutions how to present them in the best way to fulfill them.
The importance of preparing for new year’s resolutions
Like every year, the beginning of a new one is perceived as that ideal moment of change, as the potential beginning of a new stage. Nature does not notice it, but the human species does, both collectively and individually. As individuals we want the next 365 days to be synonymous with a new “me”, with January 1st being that day when we try to convince ourselves that this year is going to be different.
On many occasions it is not possible to meet the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of a new year. What is wrong?
To fulfill your New Year’s resolutions, you first have to know how to make them The easy part of the list of what we want to accomplish is writing them on paper, because thinking about them well is another thing. There are many mistakes that are made when setting new year’s resolutions and, for this reason, almost 50% of the people who had proposed things to do throughout the new year recognize by the end of January that they have not made them. compliment. Only 10% have fulfilled them by the end of the year.
Fortunately, this coming year can be different if we follow the recommendations below. There is no guarantee that we will achieve 100% of everything we propose, but if we know what to propose and maintain an optimistic vision and confidence in ourselves, the results will undoubtedly be positive in the long term.
To approach New Year’s resolutions in the most effective way possible, here we bring a series of keys when it comes to setting them because the way in which we prepare ourselves psychologically when approaching these resolutions will make the difference. As we suggested, It is not a matter of simply writing down wishes and wanting to fulfill them No, you have to be a little more specific, be more specific and, very importantly, make sure that they begin to be followed from January 1st.
1. Set priorities
The first thing is make a list of objectives that we would like to achieve so that, later, we can order them from most important to least It is essential to establish priorities and assign a degree of importance to focus more on those that we believe will be most beneficial to us. As a guide, we can follow the following criteria:
It is essential to be as specific and concrete as possible. Setting out to “eat better” is not a specific goal. What is eating better? Are we referring to eating healthy? Low in fat? Ban eating hamburgers? It is best to make it more specific, such as “every day I am going to eat two pieces of fruit” or “I will only eat pastries on the weekend.”
2. Make a minimalist list
The saying goes: he who covers a lot, squeezes little. Although we have followed the previous advice very well, just because we have 20 very concrete and very specific New Year’s resolutions does not mean that we are going to fulfill them. Having too many things to accomplish, no matter how specific, is also a daunting task
Once we have ordered our objectives according to their degree of importance, it is time to establish a limit. The first three on the list should become those that we are going to try to fulfill, while the rest will remain as goals to start only if we see that we handle those three priorities well. If we achieve this, we can expand the list to see if we continue to be as constant.
The best option is to make a minimalist list, with less than 10 purposes and highlighting at most the first 5.
3. Divide the objectives into sub-goals
The best way to notice that there is progress is to break down the goals into small goals, achievable with less effort and more specific than the general objective. By breaking down medium and long-term objectives into simpler subgoals, easy to achieve in the short term will help us be clear about what to do.
For example, the goal of losing 20 kilos is concrete, yes, but it is not attainable in the short term. If we want to achieve that goal, we must first lose some weight, such as half a kilo. What we can do is consider a scale of different weights that, as we achieve them, we will mark as a fulfilled subgoal. The first half a kilo lost is a first step towards achieving the great goal of losing 20 kilos.
Furthermore, since small goals are easy to achieve, they will become small successes that will keep us motivated and, as we have more compliments, the more motivated we will be when we see the long path we have already come. It is essential to avoid leaving everything stated in abstract goals and without deadlines
And very important: measure progress. It is highly advisable that in addition to subdividing these goals, we write down each small step we take, whether in a diary, a calendar or any other medium. What is not measured can not be improved.
4. Make a schedule
It is essential to establish a new schedule prepared from the first day, and stick to it naturally. Before starting to introduce these new habits into our daily lives, we must do what is necessary to be able to do these new tasks in a constant and consistent manner The more detailed and specific our schedule is, the better.
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5. Look for accomplices
A good way to ensure that we continue with our goals is to look for accomplices. For example, if we have set a goal to get in shape, a good idea is to join the gym with a friend who has set that same goal, in order to put pressure on each other to fulfill it.
Also It’s a good idea to tell family and friends we trust what our annual goals are If they are people who want us to succeed, they will be interested in our progress and, from time to time, will ask us how we are doing, acting as spontaneous reminders that we should be achieving what we set at the beginning of the year. The psychological factor of fear of disappointing the people we care about plays a very important role.
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6. Get ahead of your own excuses
Anticipate the possible excuses that appear in your mind Analyze what you do on a daily basis and identify behaviors that can become an excuse to stop making efforts and abandon what you had set out to do at the end of the previous year.
An example: if you had decided to get in shape, don’t spend weeks looking for the best or the cheapest gym. Decide on the closest and most affordable one, to avoid using the excuse of “it’s too far away” and, if its price is relatively high, use that as a compelling reason to go as many times as possible.
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7. Take care of yourself
At first it may seem that the advice to sleep well and stay in shape has little to do with how to approach New Year’s resolutions. It’s not to resort to clichés and clichés, but it doesn’t hurt to remember that “healthy mind in a healthy body.”
Physical well-being influences psychological well-being, and therefore it also does so in a negative sense Tiredness and physical fatigue harm us cognitively and motivationally, making us have less desire to do anything and also making it harder for us to concentrate.
8. If you need it, seek professional help
It is not necessary to suffer from psychopathology to see a psychologist ; In therapy it is also possible to develop emotion management skills that are very useful to achieve our personal and professional goals. Or if you prefer, you can opt for the coaching services that many psychologists offer.
