Sticking to New Year’s Resolutions
Making sure you keep to it in 2021
Let’s get this out of the way first, 2020 was hard for all of us no matter how you try to break things down. Once the pandemic hit many of us thought we could fully stick to our goals for 2020 of learning a new language, “eating clean” (I’m still not sure what this means), or working out everyday. If you found a way to stick to any of your resolutions, I commend you (I wish I was you). But if you’re like me and kind of did resolutions sometimes that’s okay too.
The main lesson of 2020 taught me was to start small. The lofty goals of writing a “Medium post every week” or “Work out 90 minutes at least 6 times a week” became much smaller as time passed. I focused on getting 40 minutes of either an at home workout in with resistance bands or a 30 minute boxing game on my switch in for my workout.
The days of going to the gym came and went due to the pandemic. In normal times the thrill of going to the gym to lift heavy weights excited me. I was motivated to achieve because others in the gym were trying there hardest or starting at me if I didn’t work as hard. Or having competitions with friends of how many reps we could get in. Additionally, just being at a place other than my house made me feel as though there was a mission to be completed in these walls “Sweat, Passion, Shatter Goals” were actually written on the walls at my local gym.
Like so many, I lost all that once the lockdowns and social distancing began. Once the world changed, everyday life had to be adjusted as well. It was a struggle to say the least.
What reason was there to keep up with such things as eating clean when the world felt as if it were to end at anytime? Not to mention gyms closing, work going completely online, and travel brought to a halt.
Days turned into weeks of not following through on these resolutions. Habits broke down.
When I finally felt like working out to break the daily struggle of lockdown I found myself unmotivated, sluggish, and lazy. Something just didn’t click.
Just Don’t Give Up
Though I felt unmotivated to follow through on all my resolutions, I still made efforts to try again. This is what I will continue to do in 2021 as well.
As 2020 rolled through I started trying to take back my habits with tiny steps. For working out, I made sure that I did something for 30 minutes everyday as some form of exercise. This started as walking around my neighborhood. Then adding in three days a week of using resistance bands and easy workouts like push ups, lunges, and sit ups for 30 minutes. Later I increased this to 45 minutes, and so on until I was able to construct a full workout session of 1 hour every day composed of full body exercises and cardio.
For writing I made a promise to myself to write at least 500 words everyday.
On eating better, I worked on making more meals at home so I only eat out once every week.
These are all small goals that I want to make sure I can complete easily. It builds the confidence I need to assure myself that I can do this every day. That I can reach my goals if I put in the time.
Write And Track Your Goals
Another aspect that has helped me get back on track with my goals and resolutions was the act of using my bullet journal. It’s a wonderful tool that I plan to write about more this year since it truly has changed my life. It also was instrumental in helping me track my habits throughout the year.
Being able to set the goals for yourself means nothing if you can’t look back to assess how you’ve done. Maybe you’ll feel as if you ate clean during the week, but remember that you cooked some fried food at home rather than getting fast food at a drive through and think that’s good. Tracking this helps you ensure you don’t miss these.
That’s not to say don’t enjoy yourself if the moment comes or if you needed a little kick, or couldn’t get a workout in. Just be sure to jot that down so that when the next day comes you know what your expectations are for you. Maybe you feel bad about missing a workout? The next day you could add 10 to 20 more minutes to your usually 30 minute walk then.
Using the bullet journal or any other type of tracker you enjoy also allows you the benefit of breaking down your goals into these manageable chunks. If your goal for the year is to write a book, then writing 500 words a day is a great chunk. Of perhaps you want a new goal for the summer because something didn’t work out the way you thought; you can break down your goals into monthly goals instead of a few yearly ones.
You Don’t Need Perfection
Please, please, please know that perfection is not the goal. I will not become Stephen King this year with my writing and I will not become LeBron James or Dwayne Johnson in the gym. That’s okay.
Strive to just do slightly better than yesterday or the last year. You’d be surprised how much you can change.
Malcolm Gladwell is often attributed to the fact that 10,000 hours is needed to master a skill, but that is MASTERY. You likely can’t reach such a level of perfection in a years time. So if your goal in 2021 is to learn a new skill like cooking, a new language, or an instrument then also understand that you will struggle a lot at first.
Your foundation isn’t built. Everything is brand new to you. Mistakes will help you grow better even if it makes you feel like a failure. Remember that you are not in a rush. You want to be better than you were before.
Remember Why These Goals Are Important
2021 Is a brand new year with many possibilities for all of us. Your goals can be your guiding light to something great if you let them lead you.
I never thought I would finish my book before, but it was important to me. It’s something that I wanted to do for years. Making it my 2020 goal helped me achieve it because anytime I was free I could write. I could finally make that dream a reality if I put time and effort into it.
Think of what matters to you. If it’s your health and you have kids, they want their parents around for a long time. A walk a day could help you reach that goal. You can absolutely find those 30 minutes a day for something like that. Just like you can find time for any of the goals you think of.
Cut out those time wasters like social media, TV, news and more. Stop eating terrible food that could shorten your life.
2021 Is the time we take our lives back and make it even better than it was in 2020 or 2019. Don’t worry about the past, if you need to learn from it then do so because learning from 2020 is important. But Also be ready for something new. And make this year great.
