This year, I’m gonna be healthier, save money, sleep earlier, read a book every week,
spend more time with people I care about, and find the love of my life.
What could possibly go wrong?
Hey there all you ambitious kids, Catie here for DNews.
Every year, it’s the same.
The clock strikes 12, and bam!
You’re a new person!
All those things that make you feel bad about yourself are going out the door!
Well, for a couple weeks or so.
In fact, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, out of the 45% of
Americans who usually make New Years resolutions, only 8% of them will succeed.
Wow, that is disheartening.
The reason we have such a hard time keeping these resolutions is because of 3 main reasons.
There are often too many, they are too vague, and they are often way too difficult.
It can be fun and easy to make a huge bucket list of all the things you want to change
about yourself to set out to become the perfect you within the next year.
But the problem is that we have so many competing priorities all those other things fall by
the wayside.
Having such a huge daunting list can make it so much easier to abandon all of them.
So, how do we keep them?
I wanna be a part of that 8%.
Well, first of all, keep it simple.
Rather than listing out 80 different things you want to achieve within the next year try
sticking to one to three goals that are really important to you.
A study done by Stanford University showed that people that try to memorize more information
have less willpower.
Next, keep it specific.
It’s alright to have an overall goal of “be healthier,” but that’s really vague.
So in order to reach that long term goal, set one small goal at a time.
So maybe start with the goal “remove soda from my diet.”
Once you’ve successfully reached that goal, you can cross that off your short list, and
add a new one like, “go for a run with Jenn on tuesdays.”
You get the idea.
Speaking of Jenn, an imaginary friend I just made up, employing the buddy system is pretty
helpful.
And not just in the traditional sense of having a friend to go to the gym with on specific
days, although that is very helpful.
Sharing your goals with your friends and family can be so important.
Studies show that a lack of social support can increase anxiety, cortisol and heart rate
and all of these factors can affect your ability to stick to your goals.
You don’t have to go it alone.
Share your goals with your friends, and if they try to shame you then maybe it’s time
to add “get new friends” to your list.
Not to mention, in this era of social media it can be really easy to find social support!
Go figure.
Post your goals on a blog, or facebook.
You could even make a weekly post to show your progress.
An audience can be a good motivator.
But don’t do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable and remember that sometimes
with the good support, there can be some pretty nasty people that feel uncomfy that you’re
doing something to better yourself, and wanna make you feel bad so they can feel better.
Shake it off, boo.
They’re just mad at themselves.
Now here’s the big one: don’t be afraid to slip up.
It’s gonna happen.
Humans are imperfect creatures and no matter how scientific you are about your goals there
will undoubtedly be a time when you mess up.
But that is okay!
Using shame and guilt to motivate yourself will only backfire anyway!
People who tend to feel badly about themselves have less self-efficacy, which in turn makes
you feel more ashamed and it’s just a vicious cycle.
It’s easier said than done, but practice self-forgiveness.
If you tend to be one of those self-punishing people, maybe you should have one long-term
goal of learning self-love.
It’s a tough one.
And when you have that delicious piece of chocolate chocolate cake, enjoy it.
Don’t punish yourself.
Remember that when you hit that first bump in the road, it does NOT mean you failed at
your resolutions and you may as well just eat another piece of cake, and that ice cream,
and that donut and those feelings because you’re just a worthless piece of failure.
Tomorrow is a new day, and gaw damn, that cake was good.
And p.s.
here’s just a little extra tip from me to you-- you don’t need a new year in order
to make a new resolution.
Thanks for joining me on DNews guys, I hope you all have a great New Year, and if you
feel so inclined, share your resolutions in the comments below.
Social support for the win.
You can follow me on twitter @catiewayne and if you’d like to see more videos by me check
out my personal channel ANewHopeee, fun is bound to be had.
I’ll see you next time, bye.