How to Persevere in your New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!

Over the past few years, I had not made any significant New Year’s resolutions. For the most part, whenever I did set a goal, I would never attain it. This was discouraging so I decided not to make any more New Year’s resolutions. Until this year.

This year, I decided to try and achieve a few goals and do my best to see them through. Now that I have decided to start this blog my ultimate goal is to post on a weekly basis. So far, I think it has been going well, after achieving my weekly posting goal I’d like to start posting two times a week.

Another goal I am making for myself is to exercise more and eat more healthily. Why? Because I am always feeling tired and I am tired of being tired. I no longer desire to run out of breath after climbing two flights of stairs. Also, if God wills, I would like to have children and having grown up on tough love, I don’t want my kids winning races against me, or atleast not without some effort. So if you plan on setting a goal, or set of goals this year, here are a few tips to help stick to them.

Start Small

If you set a single goal that is too great, you are most likely going to feel overwhelmed and quit. Therefore, if you have a rather large goal that you would like to eventually complete, divide it into smaller, more manageable objectives, relative to your goal, and work on them in a reasonable sequence. As you accomplish your smaller objectives, move to the next one until, before you know it, you’ve accomplished all that you have set your mind to.

For example, if your ideal goal is to write a fiction novel. First, work out the plot. Next, develop the characters, narrative, and so forth. After all of those preliminary objectives have been taken care of, you should then be able to more easily and efficiently piece everything together and flesh out the entire story.

Make Time

I must admit, this one is a huge “note to self” for me, especially given my ongoing struggle against procrastination. Throughout my earlier years, I managed to skate by with it, but now, in the “real world” where no one is on top of what I do or don’t do, my procrastinate ammounts to no less than the detriment of myself it comes to personal goals to the point where I give up.

However, to achieve any goal, one must make the time to work at it. Therefore, to combat my procrastination, I have scheduled a time to write as well as the days on which I will exercise. I have even resolved to leave my hair curly for the entire month of January so as to not hinder my fitness commitment.

To those who may not instantly perceive the correlation, an Ang (pronounced “Anj”) with already curly hair equals an Ang who won’t have to spend any time re-straightening her hair after the sweat and/or moisture naturally causes her roots to curl. Furthermore, an Ang with unstraightened hair would not have to wrestle with thoughts such as: “Ok, well I just spent three grueling hours, getting this hair right am I going to undo all of that in the first three minutes of this warm-up?”

Find Support

Find someone who is, either, looking to achieve a similar goal or who genuinely cares about the success your own. That way you will have accountability and perhaps some much-needed wisdom and encouragement to stir you onward.

One personal example I have of this my current Bible reading plan. I and a few members from the local church I attend, set up a year-long Bible reading plan together via the Youversion Bible website/app. Our individual progress and group feedback are recorded in the app and there we can see how each member is progressing or if someone is falling behind like I did last year. That is another thing I am hoping to change that this year as well.

Keep track of your progress

The only way to know if you are keeping up with your goal is to keep track of it. I would suggest getting a planner to document everytime you work toward your target goals. This way you can look back at what you have done. I always find it encouraging to reflect upon the progress I have made and one of the best ways to see improvement is through journaling (unless you have a weight loss goal, then progrss can be clearly seen in your own body, and that feels great too).

And now that you have these few tips, I hope it will help you persevere in your New Year’s resolutions. Feel free to share what some of your goals for 2019 are in the comments section below. I would love to see what you guys have planned for this year!

SDG – “Soli Deo Gloria”