Setting Realistic New Year’s Resolutions 

Happy 2023 everyone!! It’s time to start reflecting on the past year and to commit to some resolutions. However, most people quit their resolutions by the end of January. Why is that? It’s because people tend to just write down what they want to accomplish, without actually incorporating a plan of action. We’re here to help you set realistic goals for 2023 so that it can be the best and productive year yet.

Tell us your 2023 resolutions in the comments!

1. Think About What You Want

Make sure your goal is actually something that you want to achieve. Don’t set a goal to begin working on a book if you aren’t interested in becoming a writer. Your New Year’s goal should be something you have found yourself thinking about doing that you’ve finally decided to stop putting off.

Also, don’t feel pressured to set goals that you’re not passionate about. Make your resolutions about yourself and don’t succumb to peer pressure or doing what is expected of you. The whole point of resolutions is making the new year better than the previous one. Make sure to reflect on exactly what you want to happen.

2. Be Specific

If your plan is to “be healthier” think about what that actually means. Do you want to start going to the gym once a week? Do you want to eat less junk food or cut it out completely? If you don’t know what you want your end result to be. then you’ll have no way of telling whether or not you’re making progress.

It’s much harder to stick to a goal if there is no real way to accomplish it. Think about your overall goal and what steps you can realistically take every week to complete your resolution. For example, instead of saying that you want to start running, make a plan for how many miles you can handle per day or per week.

3. Have Someone Hold You Accountable

It’s one thing to let yourself down. It’s another thing when you let others down. Tell friends what your goals are, tell family members, tell your coworkers-even if you guys aren’t very close. The more people you tell, the more people you have rooting for you. If you take a week off from working towards your goals, you don’t just have to face yourself every day. You have to deal with telling your all the people in your life that you aren’t making progress.

Or better yet, find people who share your goals for 2023 and try to complete them together. Say both you and your friend plan to write a novel for the first time, share your progress. Set a due date for your first 10k words. Not only do you have someone cheering you on, but you also have someone who understands what you’re trying to accomplish.

4. Keep Track of Progress

If you write three pages of your novel one week, make a note of that. If you do ten pull ups one day after a week of only being able to do five, write that down. The best way to motivate yourself to continue working hard is to see how far you’ve already come.

It doesn’t matter if you keep track on your computer or in a journal, find a way to write down your progress and try to reflect on it each month. You’re going to be amazed by how far you get if you stick with it.

5. Reward Yourself

Incentives can be powerful. If you finish a chapter of your novel, reward yourself by doing something to relax. If you have been running consistently for a month, treat yourself to a special meal. Rewarding yourself for your progress is a much-deserved incentive when working toward a big goal.

Back in college, we’d do this by saying after every 30 minutes of studying, we could read a chapter of a fiction book for fun. It’s a way to relax, rejuvenate and prevent burnout.

6. Be Consistent

If you make progress toward your goal one day, don’t count that as hitting your goal for the week. If you really want to achieve what you set out to do, you’re going to have to work toward it every day. Not only can it help you get there faster, but it is much easier to motivate yourself when doing something daily as opposed to once a week.

Also make sure that your goal is something can be maintained. Don’t start something, stick with it for a few weeks and then let it fall by the wayside. When setting a resolution, keep in mind that it’s something to do throughout the year.

7. Be Adaptable

Don’t be afraid to change course on your goals based on what happens during the year. Say that you wanted to run a marathon. You’ve been consistent and you’re making progress on your running, but you know that your body isn’t ready. Try a half-marathon instead. It’s not cheating or quitting, it’s adapting based on your developed skillset and it’s still an accomplishment that you couldn’t have done without the training.