How to actually follow through with your New Year’s resolution(s):

New Year’s resolutions differ depending on the person. They range from procrastinating less to exercising more to spending less time in front of a screen. However, despite some people thinking they are a waste of time since people frequently don’t follow through with them, New Year’s resolutions are actually not that bad. Even though most people break theirs quickly, it’s a good reason to start to move forward to where you want to be. For at least for a month or so, you’re achieving your goal, and you can go even longer than that with these funky yet simple tips.

Why do you want to do it?

• Ask yourself why you want to reach the goal you are setting. If you want to go to the gym more frequently, is it to lose weight? Be fitter? Be happier? Make sure to be honest with yourself.
• Finding the reason for why you want to do what you’re doing will help you continue through with it.

Hold yourself accountable

• Apps! Duolingo reminds you to take language lessons, fitness and nutrition apps like MyFitnessPal remind you to do daily exercises and help you log when and what you ate, iPhones have screen time monitoring and Instagram can remind you when your endless scrolling becomes too much. Use technology to your advantage!
• Have parents and friends keep you accountable too! Having a fitness, language or study buddy can really help and even if your friend or family does not have the same resolution, they can still encourage you to keep going and remind you when you forget.

Game plan

• Don’t go into the new year blind! Make a game plan that is easy to follow and reasonable. Instead of simply vowing to become fitter, schedule times in your week to go to the gym. Maybe Wednesday and Saturday evenings will be your work out time. Having a game plan makes it easier to follow through and stay accountable. It also makes the task seem less daunting and can turn into a routine in your life.

Slip-ups are okay

• If you break a diet or miss a day at the gym, don’t give up on your entire resolution! It’s natural to not be perfect the first time, and the best course of action is to just keep going.
• Maybe your resolution last year didn’t pan out as well as you’d hoped, but this year you can always try again. Some goals take longer to achieve than others.