Hello VFFs and Happy New Year! As I work on my personal New Year’s resolutions, I thought why don’t I share about it with you. Let’s get real and accept that most of our resolutions don’t make it to the end of the year. I don’t know why but that’s what often happens. This year I refuse to let that happen so I decided to look into how to make New Year’s resolutions stick. Here are my tips and inspiration to help your 2019 New Year’s Resolutions happen.

“New Year- A new chapter, new verse, or the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is yours”

-Alex Morritt

What’s the secret to sticking to your New year’s resolutions?

The secret is to think backwards. Your goals and dreams have probably been the same year after year. Maybe your approach has also been the same. Therefore, you are not getting the results you expect. The secret is to instead of thinking of the goals and things you want to accomplish, think of the things you don’t want to bring with you this year. Think of all the things that you did in 2018 that did not bring you closer to your goals. For example, my 2018 resolution was to be healthy and to eat better. That’s a great resolution, but unless it’s backed up with a habit is not going to stick. In order for me to reach my “be healthy” resolution, I have to think of the all the bad habits I created that have kept me from being healthy. So now instead of my new year resolution being “be healthy”, I would say it’s to quit drinking soda.

Basically what I am saying is to ditch the new year’s resolution list and to make a list of the things you don’t want to bring with you in 2019. Sarah Knight talks about it in her book Get Your Sh*t Together “Turns out goal-setting doesn’t have to be about aspiring to what you want to be, so much as putting an end to what you don’t want to be”. The way to achieve success in December 2019 is by changing your daily habits in January 2019. Instead of looking at new year’s resolution being “save money”, make it a habit of not spending money for 21 days.

“The New Year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written”.

-Melodie Beattie

After you figured out all the things you don’t want to bring to 2019, you can then start thinking about establishing a routine. You identified what’s wrong with your life and turned it into your new goals. Now is time to figure out how your goals fit into your life by creating a new routine. For example, if your new goal is to workout three times a week, then when exactly will you be doing that. If your goal is to read a book a month, then establish when exactly are you going to be reading this book. Personally, one of my goals is to workout daily. I know that if I don’t get it done before work, I will find excuses to not do it when I get home from work. So for me to be able to do that and make it stick I have to wake up at 4:45 am during the week and make that my new routine.

To wrap up, I wanted to say the secret to making your New Year’s resolutions stick is:

1. Make a list of the things you don’t want in 2019
2. Turn that list into your new goals
3. Make a new routine that includes when will you be working on those goals.

I really hope I was able to encourage you to continue to follow your dreams. I hope you are able to accomplish all your goals this year. Feel free to leave a comment below to share about your New Year’s resolutions.

“Cheers to a new year & another chance for us to get it right”.

-Oprah Winfrey