Ensuring Success in New Year Resolutions in Just 6 Minutes
Adding efficiency, joyfulness, and a unique spice to your resolutions…
Congratulations! We’re in the new year now! By now, we’ve probably started brainstorming our New Years’ resolutions. Some of you may have created them and are back to the ‘grind.’ At first, with newfound courage and enthusiasm, time goes by without any struggles.
However, in days or weeks, the exact straightforward activity becomes more complex and “unimaginable” to complete as the year goes by, and sadly, quitting starts happening. For many, this is a continuous loop of:
A. Making a resolution
B. Executing it/them for a few weeks/months
C. Quitting as soon as it feels tough.
D. Don’t do anything.
And for some, this loop can become as easy as saying A-B-C-D. As a “quitter” myself, I can now identify why I…well quit.
- Procrastination (Low esteem)
- Lack of motivation
- Inefficient planning
- Accountability, the hardest, in my opinion, because there’s a lack of it.
Here’s how to beat these struggles
Procrastination
It's safe to say that there is/has been a procrastinator in all of us. We all know the little mental tricks we've used to avoid our work. For example, when we sit down, we might glance at the time and notice that it's 3:07 pm. We might try to fool ourselves and decide to start the work at 3:15. But what happens is that we lose track of time, and by the time it's 3:34, we tell ourselves, "You know what, I'm gonna start at 3:45."
Stop, don’t wait for the right time.
This is a classic scenario of the wrestle between motivation and procrastination. The more and more you lose grip on your procrastination behavior, you'll eventually fall, and you won't afford to delay your work on the last month, week, and then minute. So, whenever you realize that your goal and actions don't meet, you have to break the cycle now and do either of the two things; Either make the resolution fit in your grand scheme or commit to something new that will work just right. Otherwise, guilt and low-esteem will start weighing you down.
Motivation
The most straightforward answer to why it’s challenging to stay true to a resolution is a lack of motivation due to miserable planning.
One common mistake is making our goals way too high. Often we run
out of motivation too quickly. Instead, how about highlighting the little steps that need to be taken. Personally, on weekends I wake up late and lose precious morning hours that I could use to study or do something productive. So I’ve devised a plan to wake up at a particular time, and every time I would wake up two hours earlier than the routine, I would feel tired, lifeless, and felt this was too much to accomplish at once. So, my goal is to wake up 20 minutes earlier than the previous. By the time I’m at two hours-early mark, I’ll feel ready.
This idea ties into another mistake many take-ups make to-do lists that have only the end-goal listed and are vague. Let me explain. I recently had to take a Spanish test, so I wrote down my to-do lists that I need to “study for the Spanish test.” It sucked because it was broad, vague, and didn’t give clear instructions on what I should study. So I self-examined myself and instead studied for my Spanish numbers vocab. This told me exactly what I needed to and wasn’t congested with many end goals that confused my process.
Our New Years Resolution should be a clear step-by-step plan for each idea.
Joyful Planning
We all are human, and we have all quit something in life because although we strive for the reward, we didn’t enjoy the process, and within time, the plan didn’t motivate us enough to keep ongoing — like New Years Resolution.
You have to feel the joy out of every action you take.
We’ve all felt that when we’re partaking in something that doesn’t please us, we think the time is going slower to spite us. In contrast, when we do something enjoyable, time flies by. This basic philosophy is fundamental in this planning guide because with joy comes motivation. If we can’t feel the excitement and joy within us, there’s a problem, and you need to deal with it now.
When we hear or see people who were able to acheive things such as a New Years Resolution, can’t we feel the happiness and the joy of their great accomplishment? They are the definition of success.
This is why whenever we hear people who completed their resolutions, they did them because they enjoyed them, not just because they desired the reward now but also because they maintained their habit. As Adithya Chakravarthy explained, “…the most important thing to maintaining a habit is getting buy-in from yourself. It’s not enough to enjoy the outcome — you have to enjoy the process, and only then will the outcome follow.”
We tend to focus on the end goal so much that we forget that it’s not the most critical aspect of the accomplishment. The process is what we have to live through first, and the reward is what we gain after, in the end. And if we can’t even survive the whole process, you’ll never be able to accomplish anything, for that matter.
Live it, Study it, Work it, Enjoy it
Another phrase that comes to mind is, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” We should be able to change something rotten and feel its joy!
Flexibility
While writing this, I remembered a character quote from a show that had cheesy yet fitting advice, in my opinion;
Make a plan.
Execute the plan.
Expect the plan to go off the rails.
Throw away the plan.
Being flexible and ready to adapt or even jump ship will help create and maintain essential habits. In the interest of New Years Resolutions, if a plan doesn’t seem to work, first, be prepared because that can reduce fear and anxiety, then attempt to improve it but if it can’t be salvaged, don’t stay stuck and move on to the following scheme.
Be as mentally flexible as a ballerina.
As my parents say, “This will even be of service to you in general life, beta.”
Accountability (My Spice)
I came up with this component for myself, and I will try to follow its rules because, yes, I am a quitter. As a student, I’ve seen some of my classmates filling out packets of self-reflection on their disruptive behavior. There are questions such as, “Why did you do this” or “How do your actions affect you and the people around you.” And so, I thought that making and executing a resolution is based on self-reflection. Why not add accountability in the mix?
Accountability is a crucial aspect of a leader. It means that you have the humility to own up to commitments and promises. It means being responsible for the actions and decisions you make and those who follow. QUITE clear this is no easy task
Quick Pros
Eliminates time + effort spent on distracting activities and unproductive behavior.
Effectively teaching them to value their work.
Increase your team members’ skills and confidence.
When carrying out our plans, we have to be our resolution police and read to ourselves the “discipline” rights, so to speak, for accountability because no one else will.
These are the following questions I created if you quit and fall into the A-B-C-D loop;
- Why are you stepping down?
- What could've been smoother in the planning?
- What could you have done better
- What will you gain from quitting?
- What will you lose from quitting
- And to put a bow on it, a short sentence that sums up the above answers as a bit of a message to yourself, "The truth is I am losing/gaining ____ from being a quitter."
Now, hang it up where you can glance at it every day for the whole year, and maybe, just maybe, you will feel remorse of quitting, guilty of lying to yourself many moons ago, and hopefully, this will inspire you and reignite your ambition to be better for the future. It’s okay to pick it back up many months later because at least you did, and now you have future knowledge.
Once again, as a friendly reminder, please do consider not just a resolution but a self-examination as we start this new year. Taking the best of the past that has proven success — see if you are where you want to be.
I’m a thirteen-year-old funny and weird geek who’s passionate about life, electronics, and other stuff. I am a writer for The Startup as well!
