The New Year is an exciting time; a brand new, 365 days to
achieve dreams and goals. For many of us, the promise of the New Year can make
us set some lofty resolutions and in the past, you may have not followed
through. But if you’re looking for some follow through this year, keep reading
below to learn about some tips that can help you stay true to your New Year
Resolutions!
Are you an aging senior looking to start 2019 off a little
safer, a little more independent and maybe a little more confident while living
at-home? Well, Life Alert is here to help make your New Year Resolution come
true. While wearing their lightweight, waterproof emergency pendant, you can
summon help fast with just one touch of a button. No matter if you experience a
home invasion, a home fire or even a serious fall, Life Alert’s dispatch team
is available to send you the proper authorities fast, 24/7. Not only can LifeAlert help you to achieve your personal protection resolution, but it can help
you to stay true to it all year long!
Let 2019 be your year of change; the year you make all your
goals come true! How? Lifehack[1]
has 10 tips you can use to set a goal and achieve it. Read below to make 2019
yours!
1. Tell People
about Your Resolutions
By telling people about your resolutions, you are
consciously committing to them. Just think about it: If you’ve told someone
you’re going to do something, people are going to be expecting you to do it.
You’ve not just made the commitment to you, you’ve made it to everyone you’ve
told. Another nice benefit of telling people about your resolutions is the
support that comes with it. When the right people know about your resolution,
they’ll stand behind you in achieving it. They’ll act as a support net, to spur
you on even when you think you can’t do it.
2. Clarify Your
Resolutions
Ensure that your resolution can be actively tracked. Take,
for example, a resolution of reading more. This is too vague. How will you know
when you’ve achieved this goal? Will you be satisfied with reading a book once
a month? A week? A day? The only way to know if you’ve achieved your resolution
is by clarifying them so that they’re achievable. If you want to read more,
then you’re far better off setting a tangible and achievable goal — such as
reading two books a month. You can track your progress, you’ll know if you’ve
slacked on it, and you’ll know if you’ve achieved it!
3. Make a Plan
Tying into point 2, about clarifying them. Once clarified,
you can then create a plan to break down the clarified goal into smaller
sub-goals that you can achieve daily. If you imagine your resolution as small,
actionable steps, the achievement of the goal becomes a lot more feasible in
your head. Take the reading example. If you want to read 100 books a year, that
could seem pretty overwhelming. If you break that down to reading one book
every 4 days, it becomes a lot more realistic. This way you can also actively
monitor your progress, and you’ll know whether or not you’re on target to meet
it.
4. Re-Frame Your
Resolutions
Your resolution should not be putting you down. Don’t allow
your resolution to become a passive way of saying, “I won’t be good enough
until I achieve this.” This is a sure-fire way to become demotivated by the
idea of achieving them, and can really get you down in the long-run. Take a new
perspective on goals. Remind yourself that you’re good enough, each and every
day and that your goals are just serving as a means to be better. You’re not
doing it to be enough, you’re doing it to be MORE. That’s the kind of
perspective that really begins to push your preconceived limits.
5. Stop focusing on the end result
The idea of the goals can often feel like we’re holding them
at arm’s length. As though we should just achieve them and we’re done. When we
commit to the process, the journey, of the goal, however, it’s a lot easier to
make it an enjoyable experience. The goal is in the distance, getting there is
where our focus needs to be. You can’t constantly be looking at the map to see
your end destination while driving, otherwise you’ll crash on the way there.
6. Know When to
Take a Break
Burning out is a very real possibility when you’re not
taking breaks. Find the time each day to let your mind relax. No goal or
resolution should consume your mind from the moment of waking to the moment of
sleep. Taking effective breaks has also been shown to increase our
productivity. With that said, checking your social media accounts and watching
TV are not breaks for the mind – they’re probably more stressful. Meditate,
sing, take a walk, have a shower, do a small workout or something similar
instead.
7. Push Yourself
There’s a great quote by Bruce Lee that says: “If you always
put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into
your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and
you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” How this relates to reaching
your resolutions is very simple: there will be plateaus in your progress
towards achieving them. There will be points where you’re uncertain that you
can really achieve what you’ve set out to do. Not just in your New Year’s
resolutions but in life, in general. This is where you need to push yourself.
You can’t accept “no” for an answer. Dig deep, find the will within to push
past the plateau. Discouragement can become fuel when we allow it to be.
Setbacks can become fuel when we allow them to be. You’ve simply got to keep
pushing. You will achieve it. Tell yourself you’ll excel. You’ll be surprised
how much more capable you really are.
8. Reward yourself
Temptation bundling is a strangely, yet unsurprisingly,
simple way to push yourself to achieve more. The premise is simple, tie what
you want to achieve (but seem to be struggling to do so) with a reward, and get
the reward each time you work towards the goal. A good example, as demonstrated
in this somewhat contradictory post, is your workout. If you really enjoy
listening to audiobooks, but don’t like working out, and your resolution is to
workout more frequently – limit your audiobook listening time to the gym. If
you like your audiobooks enough, it’ll spur you on to actually go workout.
9. Don’t give in
to the critic
You’re going to have doubters. They’re a part of life. So
why not use them to motivate and encourage you? Now okay, it’s probably not
best to be striving to achieve something out of spite…people will try to bind
you to their own self-set limitations. Take their criticism, and tell yourself
that you’re not bound by what they’re bound to. Go out, make it happen, achieve
it. Then, when all is said and done, go back to the critic and respectfully
tell them of your achievement, and thank them for their help. Not only will you
have achieved something, but you have the potential to help another being
evaluate why they’ve set such limits for themselves. It’s a win-win. (Plus you
can be a little smug, but only a little.)
10. Celebrate Your
Achievements
Forget what others think about it, if you’re happy about the
progress you’re making, you have every right to celebrate it and shout it from
the rooftops. It’ll only empower you to continue pursuing that goal. So there
you have it, 10 tips for actually sticking to and achieving your New Year’s
resolutions.
Whether you’re looking to reach a weight loss goal, a travel
goal or even a lifestyle change, use the tips above to help make your 2019 resolutions
a reality! But, if great personal protection is what you’re after this New
Year, let Life Alert help make your dream come true. That’s right, with the
safety of Life Alert’s emergency pendant by your side, you can harness the
power of 24/7 at-home safety. Simply slip the lightweight, waterproof pendant
around your neck or wrist and in the event of a life threatening emergency,
push the button on your pendant and summon an emergency medical response fast. Make
2019 a year of confidence, independence and safety by getting Life Alert
Protection today! Call 1-800-513-2934 for a free Life Alert brochure.
Works Cited:
1.
Mcspirit, Jake. “10 Tips For Making New Year’s
Resolutions Come True.” Lifehack.
<https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-tips-for-making-new-years-resolutions-come-true.html >.
