8 Ways to Stick to Your Resolutions – Even if You’ve Already Slipped Up

Have you abandoned your New Year's wellness resolutions? If so, this happens to the best of us. You begin January inspired, determined and strong, but lose steam along the way. Then you forget all about your resolutions and revert back to your old ways come February. *Sigh.*

Well, the good news is you can choose to refocus and get back on track, with just a few modifications to your approach. Below, we outline what these are, so you can keep crushing those goals with ease.

How to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions

1. Be Specific

Rather than vaguely saying, ‘I’m going to eat healthily’ or ‘I’m going to start working out,’ you need to set clearly defined goals. For instance, set a goal to work out three times per week or to eat five vegetables per day.

2. Make it Realistic

If you currently do no exercise and have decided to run a marathon in a month’s time, you’re likely setting yourself up for failure. Instead, aim to be able to run 5k by the following month and begin training now. Set your sights and commit to a marathon in the future after you’ve had the appropriate time to prepare and train.

3. Come Up with a Detailed Plan

If you've decided to train three times a week, what will you do and when and where will you do it? You need to map out how you’re going to fit the new behaviour in your life. Replace wishful thinking with a real laid-out plan.

4. Be Forgiving

Understand that even though you're armed with a specific intention and a smart detailed strategy, sometimes life can get in the way. If you find yourself slacking on your veggie intake for a few days, don’t sweat it. Just get right back on track. You don't have to wait until next year's resolution to try again.

5. Ditch the All or Nothing Thinking

After all, it's about progress, not perfection. Figure out what went wrong, why it went wrong and learn from it. Now you can correct your course of action, modify your plan and prevent your slip-up from happening again. Use the experience as a learning tool and adjust your behaviour going forward, rather than using it as a reason to quit.

6. Ask for Help

Many people wing their programmes and their nutrition plans and, while they have the best intentions, they may not be on a plan set to thrive. This can be demotivating and something I see regularly as a personal trainer. You’re trying your best and working hard, but the results aren’t there.

All too often, this causes people to abandon their resolutions altogether. If you’re unsure of what to do exercise-wise to achieve your goals, hire a trainer to design a programme especially for you. If you’re struggling to incorporate a healthy eating plan into your lifestyle, speak to a dietitian. You need to acquire the knowledge and skills in order to make your resolution a reality.

7. Identify Why You Chose Your Resolution

When we think of motivation, ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’ always come to mind. Intrinsic motivation really means doing something for the joy or the satisfaction of the activity in and of itself. The motivation is internal. Extrinsic motivation then means doing something for an external reward or to avoid penalty. The motivation is external.

People adopting health or wellness-related goals unfortunately often do so fuelled entirely by extrinsic motivators. For example, a person choosing to work out three times a week to lose weight to impress a love interest would be extrinsically motivated. A person working out three times a week because it makes them feel good would be intrinsically motivated.

Shifting your focus and motivators improves your odds of adherence to your goal. It certainly makes the commitment and process more enjoyable as well.

8. Stay the Course

If you’ve had a momentary slip with your resolutions, remember it’s only February. You still have 11 months left of the year to work on your intentions.

The time will pass regardless of what you choose to do. You can either be riding high with your wellness goals accomplished by the next new year, or you can be regretful and wishing you had implemented the changes now.

Make the most of 2021 and get to work!