Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions and How to Achieve Them

2023 is here! And with every new year comes a barrage of new goals to achieve. While picking your resolution, you might wonder what everyone else is doing and how they plan to achieve their New Year’s Resolution. You’re in luck; a survey conducted by Statista reveals the top five New Year’s Resolutions of 2023:

• To exercise more
• To eat healthier
• To lose weight
• To save more money
• To spend more time with family and friends

And we’ll reveal how to achieve your New Year’s Resolution, no matter the goal.

1. Plan it out

We all know creating plans can help keep us on track, but often we throw planning out the window, believing we can achieve our goals on our own. However, planning is a great way to evaluate how much time and resources we will need to be successful. To plan your New Year’s Resolution, ask yourself the following questions and write down the answers:

• How much time will I need to reasonably complete my goal?
• What resources will I need to complete my resolution?
  • Do I need equipment/space/support?
• What roadblocks might stop me from achieving my goal?
  • What can I do to avoid them? 
  • What do I do if I can’t avoid them?
• What will help me succeed the most in achieving my resolution?
  • Think about using reminders or telling others about your resolution.

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can collect any necessary resources to start working on your resolution. 

2. Break it down

One of the best ways to achieve any resolution is by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable steps. It can be intimidating to break your resolution down at first. However, if you start by breaking it into milestones and then breaking those into actionable activities, it’s a cinch. 

• Start by thinking of the milestones that go into reaching your resolution. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, some of the milestones are losing one pound, five pounds and so on until you’ve lost your goal weight. 
• Then you want to think about the steps it will take to achieve each of these milestones. Sticking with the weight loss example, some actionable steps could include:
  • Buying workout equipment or a gym membership
  • Purchasing healthier swaps for food staples
  • Tracking your caloric intake and output
  • Drinking more water

As you break your resolution down, you’ll be able to see all of the details of the bigger picture and create your roadmap to success.

3. Have some fun

It can be tricky to stay motivated to execute your resolution. But, you can combat this by raising the stakes using rewards and penalties. According to Reed.edu, setting goals and planning rewards can help you get motivated, enjoy your success, reinforce good behavior and build new habits. 

You can plan and choose how often to reward yourself based on the milestones you’ve outlined. For example, you may reward yourself at each milestone to keep yourself motivated to reach your goal. Additionally, you can plan how much reward you get at each milestone. By increasing your prize, you incentivize reaching new milestones. 

Alternatively, you can use penalties to raise the stakes of achieving your resolution. For example, a study by the American Economic Association suggests that self-imposed cash penalties can increase your chances of success. The cash penalty works by putting away money during the duration of your goal. Then, at the end of your allotted goal time, if you’ve completed your plan, you keep the money; if you haven’t, the money is forfeited to a charity. Another penalty option is to create a bet with a friend or loved one that you will keep your resolution.

Rewards and penalties can be great motivators to complete your resolution while having fun.

4. Give yourself grace

As much as we want it to, nothing ever goes to plan, and life loves to throw obstacles in our way. When reaching your resolution, giving yourself grace is the best way to overcome these obstacles. 

Nothing is perfect, and you are almost guaranteed to slip up once or twice on your way to achieving your resolution. Instead of throwing in the towel when you slip up, please take it as a break to pause and then keep going. If you miss one day of exercise, exercise the next day anyway. 

A few slip-ups won’t be a big deal when you achieve your resolution unless you let them stop you.