It’s almost that time to make your New Year’s resolution again. Time to make a promise for a thinner and more organized you. Let’s face it, it’s time to make a promise for a “better” you.

Every year at the end of November, we all start to think of the things we let pass us by, the boxes we’ve left unopened, and perhaps the dreams we have still swirling above our heads that we just haven’t accomplished yet. Well, no time like the present. Let’s make a resolution for the new year to come. A determination to resolve something in our lives, something huge, something extraordinary.

Making A Realistic New Year’s Resolution

The key to a good resolution is to make a realistic one. If we are being honest, losing weight is a good resolution, but if you aren’t ready for a life of change, start with something small. When it has to do with what goes on in our “face-holes,” it’s never one of the easiest challenges.

The worst resolutions to date by our current society as we know it are as follows. Join a gym, learn something new, and get organized. You have to love this one. “Be Happy,” if you have to aspire to be happy, you may be looking too far out and need to find some reflection within. Ok, enough of the Gandhi, be grateful, you spoiled brat. If you have the internet to read this article, you are better off than tens of thousands of people. Stop complaining, put your big-boy pants back on, and think of a better resolution than “Be Happy.” The number one most popular New Year’s resolution is; to lose weight.

Past studies and surveys have concluded that, by February, as many as 80% of New Year’s resolutions will have been abandoned. This suggests that we’re approaching New Year resolutions all wrong. Here are a few steps on how to make a realistic New Year’s resolution.

Step 1: Plan Time for Your Goal.

Reflect on the free time you could have if you adjusted your day-to-day, but most importantly, ensure the time can be consistent. We are creatures of habit, and so are our bodies. We have followed patterns since the day we were born, so to be successful at any goal we try to set, there need to be patterns, consistency, and uniformity.

Step 2: Check In With Your Support System.

Talk to your family, friends, and even neighbors. You will need support through this, depending on how big or small your goal is. Also, if you don’t have their support, Screw them, be a man and handle your business. If you want to change, you just do it. You’ll only be better if you make the decision, don’t wait for others, but still be respectful.

Step 3: Prepare Resources.

If the goal is weight loss or muscle gain, make sure you have the equipment at home or the gym membership and know how to use the equipment for what you will be focusing on while you are there. Also, game changers are pre-workouts, recovery drinks, and bars that replenish what you just used. There’s plenty of data that proves better results with than without these.

If your resolution is something like making more “you-time” to read, then make sure you are stocked already with a few different books of your liking to keep your interest and declutter the ones that have already sat on your shelf for far too long. Keep a reading journal, or join a book club if this resolution requires you to be around other people to keep it going. Also, a book club will keep you honest since there will be weekly discussions.

Step 4: Set Smaller Progress Goals Within the Resolution.

You’re not going to get “swole” in a matter of weeks, so be patient and set reachable goals. Like, beating your own record of reps or adding a minute to each of your weekly runs. In short bursts, the simple things in life often carry the most significant value. Look forward to small victories because they keep you smiling and encouraged each day. Small achievements give bursts of joy and encouragement. When you add them up, they become a huge success story. Every book starts with one page.

Step 5: Celebrate Your Successes.

Treat Yo-Self! When you accomplish one of these small goals we just discussed, rewarding yourself with a little something, even if it’s a little extra rest time the next day, is okay.

On that note, if you are part of someone’s support system and on the outside looking in at one of these serious New Years’ Resolution-ers and cheering them on, do your part and take the time to tell them what a great job they are doing. They’ll need to hear it a few times to believe you because whatever their goal is, it’s not easy. That’s why it took them all year to decide to do it. Leave them short notes telling them “great job” and “I knew you could do it,” or maybe something a little more salacious like “You got a purdy mouth” or “Wow, you’ve lost so much weight, you’re not fat anymore!” Sometimes creepy or backhanded is what we all need to keep us going.

So making a realistic New Year’s resolution is clearly more complicated than thinking of something you want. Saying it out loud in the new year won’t simply make it so. It’s a change, a change in you, a change in your life, and something that if you are not serious about it, then you will fail, and that will leave you feeling pretty crummy setting up for another year of not being that “better” you that you had hoped for. Remember, keep it small and realistic.
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” Robert Collier