Making and Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Happy 2010! Now that the fireworks display and the holidays are over, it’s time to face what the year has in store: new opportunities, challenges, and causes for celebration. Once again, it’s time to look into changes in lifestyle that we need to make to get there. It’s time to come up with our New Year’s resolutions and make sure that we keep them.

So, what exactly is a New Year’s resolution?

Despite being a common--and oftentimes ritualistic--activity at the beginning of the year, making New Year’s resolutions confuse people into thinking that they are simply making wishes. New Year’s resolutions are actually promises that a person makes, especially in regard to correcting one’s habits. These are positive changes that you can make resulting in something beneficial. Although it can be about anything, the most popular themes in making these resolutions pertain to health, career, and relationships. It could be something as simple as exercising daily, getting to work early, and making time for family and friends. What about those who don’t have bad habits to break? Well, you can double up your current goals, such as increasing your running miles, organizing get-togethers (instead of just attending them) for family and friends, or raising the percentage of your savings. Cause-motivated individuals may also think of doing volunteer work or supporting non-profit organizations which they believe in.

How did New Year’s resolutions get so popular?

These commitments can be traced back to religious origins. Christians make similar vows when they fast during Lent. Jews look back to personal mistakes they might have made and then make a vow to correct these during the Day of Atonement. The general idea behind these traditions is self-improvement, and New Year’s resolutions are their non-sectarian counterpart.

Do people really keep their resolutions?

According to Quirkology.com, 52% of the people who make resolutions feel confident that they’re going to see through their promises. However, only 12% usually get to accomplish these.

How to keep your New Year’s resolutions

While thinking of and making plans to change something about yourself is easy, being consistent and getting the job done is the difficult part. To keep your New Year’s resolutions, here are some simple tips that will surely help:

• Post it. It's easier to forget your resolutions and make excuses when you don't actually see them. Write them down and place the list where you see it regularly, such as your closet door or on the bureau mirror. For me, crossing the items out one by one is motivating and fulfilling.
  
• Be specific. Instead of writing down, "save more" or "lose weight," put in "save $200 per month" or "lose 10 lbs."
• Get real. While being specific is important, writing realistic goals is critical in making sure that you will accomplish them. For instance, to get to the amount of money you can save, consider computing 20% of what you make each month as your savings goal. This means that you can use only 80% for daily expenses and utilities. If you have a charity goal, you can split the 80% further (10% goes to your local church or charity and 70% is all yours).
• Help and support. You don't need to join a support group for this. Just find someone you trust, such as a friend or a sister. The sense of accountability is important especially when breaking tough habits, such as quitting smoking.

As for me, my personal goal is to blog at least 3 times every week and to lose 2 inches (not pounds) around the waist, arms, and thighs within the year. So help me, God. 

(Photo credits: The New Year's resolutions card above is a derivative work by Ivan Akira from the original 20th century card published by Chatauqua Press.)