Our Trick For Sticking To New Year's Resolutions

Who here has felt personally victimized by New Year's resolutions? 

They hold all this promise of the ability to change, as if simply entering a new month will magically kick start our ability to stick to our goals. 

So yeah, we've been jaded by failed resolutions too, (as with 1/3 of other good-intentioned goal-makers) but this year we've got one trick that's a game changer for your change game. 

When you look at lists of how to keep resolutions, they include worthy tips like being specific, breaking goals down into smaller steps, planning rewards and even remembering to forgive yourself when you have set-backs. These are all true and worthwhile, but we think the one common factor that all this advice for achieving goals is simply this: WRITE.

Write it all down. 

Writing your way through all of these recommended resolution-keeping strategies will help to seal the deal. Write your goals, write your plan, write your assessments of what is working and what isn't, and if changes need to be made. Write down your planned rewards. Write your positive thoughts to counter your negative. Write it all! Feel the satisfaction as you physically cross out what you have accomplished, and look back to see just how far you've come. Talk about motivation. 

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Don't like writing by hand? Not a problem. Use your Notes app, or one of the many popular note-taking or journal apps available. Take it a step further and you can even invest in dictation software, so you can simply voice your thoughts out loud and let the computer do the writing for you. Make it work for you. 

It doesn't have to be paragraph upon paragraph of "Dear Diary" dribble from angsty adolescent days, it can simply be bullet point thoughts and lists. The benefit of writing and making your goals concrete will remain just as powerful. 

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For example if you have a common resolution like "exercise more," a simple writing entry might look something like this:

Exercise more
Run Monday Wednesday Friday 
Yoga Tuesday and Sat
Rest Thurs and Sun
Back up plan: swap walking, hiking, or trying a new class at the gym for any of these days. 
Feeling tired this week, I think I ran a little too much, I'll take an extra rest day on Saturday or go do an easy walk. Maybe call a friend to go with me?

There you go. Write the goal, a simple schedule, a few contingency plans, and a quick assessment of how it's going with necessary adjustments. Write it, live it, and love 2018. 

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