Making New Year’s resolutions can be fun, and you might be very committed to them. But once the holidays are over and you’re back to work, it can be harder to keep up with all the things you said you were going to do. Fortunately, there are ways to make it easier to keep your resolutions. By considering the tips here, you’ll be more prepared to set resolutions that work for you, keep them, and see all the great progress you’re making throughout the year. Don’t settle for less than you deserve. Here are some important ways to keep your New Year’s resolutions, even when you go back to work after the holidays.
1. Compare Your Resolution Steps to Your Work Timetable
When you go back to work, you don’t need to take your New Year’s resolutions and put them away until the next year. You can still accomplish the things you resolved to do, if you plan things the right way. One thing you’ll need to do is make sure your resolution steps line up with the timetable you have for work. Doing something before or after work to advance your goals will be necessary, unless your work schedule is highly flexible. You can generally work in anything that matters to you, but the key is finding a specific time to do it.
2. Find a Friend or Family Member and Work on Goals Together
If you have the same basic goals as someone you care about, working on those goals together can keep you motivated. Coordinating both of your work schedules doesn’t have to be difficult, and if you can’t work on things at the same time you can email or text progress reports to keep you both engaged and motivated. There are all kinds of ways to interact with people and accomplish more in the new year.
3. Call It Something Besides a New Year’s Resolution
There’s a stigma around making — and breaking — New Year’s resolutions. So don’t call it that. Call it a next-year goal, or a one-year plan, or anything else you like. Your goal doesn’t need a fancy name to be valid, and the calendar date doesn’t have to affect your commitment to change or doing something new. If it feels better to call your New Year’s resolution by something else entirely, there’s no reason you can’t do that. It may help improve your chances of success.
4. Connect Your Goal to Something You Already Do
If you have certain things you do in life that you enjoy, setting a goal that’s related to those things in some way can help you stick to a resolution you’ve made. That’s because you already do something that’s part of that resolution, so you’re not starting from scratch on something completely new or foreign to you. You’ll feel more comfortable right from the beginning, when you realize you already do part of what you need to be successful. It’s like having a jump-start to a better way of life, and it’s less intimidating that way.
5. Take the First Step, Even if It Doesn’t Seem Like Much
When you start on your New Year’s resolutions, you don’t have to get up January 1st and become a different person. Change takes time, and developing new habits isn’t always easy. But if you start small, you can accomplish things more easily. Small steps are more sustainable, and they don’t feel as daunting. That makes you more likely to stick with that small change, until you feel comfortable adding more changes on top of it. That’s how you build up to doing things differently in the new year and beyond.
6. Celebrate Your Victories, Big and Small
If you accomplish something toward your resolution, celebrate that. Just make sure you choose a way to celebrate that doesn’t damage your goal. That way you’ll feel like you can reward yourself, but you won’t harm any progress you’ve made toward an end goal. You don’t need to reach your ultimate goal before you celebrate everything you’ve done. Setting milestones along the way can give you something to work toward that feels manageable, so you can keep going and keep succeeding. Working around work may not always be easy, but it’s going to be worth it as you reach more and more of your goals.
