2020 is finally over! We can relax and enjoy our new stress free lives; oh no.  I forgot, during quarantine I gained ten pounds! Sound familiar? Well it’s the start of a new year, 2021, and that means a new you.  It is time to make out New Years resolutions and stick to them.  Making New Year’s resolutions is easy at first until the second week.  Well, great news!  There are three tips that can help you set New Year’s resolutions with ease and stick to them for the rest of the year!

The first tip is to make goals, not resolutions.  Kind of counterintuitive, I know, but goals are easier to follow as they are tailored to you and where you are at now.  For example; say your New Year’s resolution is to eat healthy.  Well, first of all, it is very vague; secondly, it is not fitted to your lifestyle.  So instead of saying, “to eat healthy,” use “eat veggies every meal” or “drink only water with meals” or even “cook 3 times a week”.  All of these goals are tailored to what you need and to fit your lifestyle, therefore making it more sustainable.

Tip two: don’t rely on motivation.  When people make resolutions to work out, they often have motivation for the first couple of days, then they end up “not feeling like it” and giving up.  Motivation comes and goes. Most people who go to the gym everyday don’t always want to.  They use discipline and the thought of why they started to go to the gym in the first place to continue to go.  For this specific example, a gym buddy would be so helpful.  Having someone keeping you accountable can help you stick to your goal and make sure that even when you are not motivated that you are still going.

Tip three: perfection doesn’t exist.  Like the other tips, you want to make these goals as sustainable as possible.  Like that saying “slow and steady wins the race” you want long lasting results then you have to make slow progress.  Just because your progress is slow doesn’t mean you are not making progress.  A lot of people want fast fixes but all you are going to end up with is back where you started: frustrated and defeated.  My goal was to eat a cleaner diet so I go by the 80/20 rule: 80% good clean foods, 20% of what I want.  If you deprive yourself from eating what you want and not honoring your cravings then you will end up binging later.  It takes 21 days to build a habit, so I encourage you to take baby steps, start off with something small for 21 days then move onto the next thing.

These tips are proven to help build sustainable goals and lifestyles.  You will fall and make mistakes but that’s how we learn.  There will be days you just want to sit in bed and eat all the food in the world, and that’s ok.  That happens to everyone, follow these tips and I guarantee you your life will change.  You will start seeing the results you have been dreaming to see and you will feel better.  You won’t be stressed about your next meeting, or date, or even meal with family.  You will feel the freedom of learning and growing, and that’s all that matters.