A Guide to Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

At the cusp of the new year, it’s tradition to start making goals for the next year. Reflecting back on this year’s goals, can you say you’ve accomplished most of them? Or were they pushed aside early on and forgotten about for the remainder of the year?

This is a good time to reflect on the kinds of goals you are making and your expectations for its end result. Independence Bunting is here to help you set goals for a successful year!

Simplify Your Goals

What happened to the goals that never came to fruition? Are these goals that frequent your list but are rarely achieved?

They key is to make your resolutions simple. Resolutions should be just challenging enough to be out of reach, but realistic enough to achieve. We all know that change doesn’t happen overnight, so why should the expectations of New Year’s goal-setting be any different?

Making goals that stick means you have to design them to be achievable in the first place. A goal doesn’t need to be a grand overhaul to make it worthwhile; anything that moves you in the right direction is a mark of success and worth celebrating.

Baby Steps

A resolution can act as an overarching goal. Breaking up your ultimate goal into smaller milestones can keep you encouraged and motivated in the right direction. If you want to compete in a marathon, start out by running a couple of times a week. Slowly increase your time and distance. If you want to do more yoga, commit to getting up ten minutes earlier and start an at home morning practice. Try that for a week. Then, gradually add longer sessions. You can even enroll in a beginner’s class twice a week. Just remember to start small and take baby steps. They can add up to some really big goals.

Maybe you want to go on more adventures this year. Get a cheap wall calendar and schedule something exciting once a month. It doesn’t have to be anything big; it can an outing in the community or a hike on a local trail. See what events are coming up throughout the year and buy tickets in advance so you’ve already set aside a commitment.

You will be more encouraged to ramp up your original idea if you are able to see some progress first. If you want to get in better shape, commit to going to the gym two or three times a week, even if it’s just for a short interval each time. By establishing the habit of going, you’ve laid the groundwork to build your routine. Finding a gym partner can help keep you motivated, and in check.

Choose Something Worth Sticking To

Be patient; your goals, if they’re meaningful, will take hard work and effort. Pick a resolution that means something to you and that you can take pride in accomplishing. The more you stick to your guns, the better you feel. Eating more vegetables makes you feel better. Kicking a bad habit like smoking fills you with pride. Vowing to be kinder to others gives you purpose and increases your happiness. De-cluttering your home leaves room for more important things and can help keep you organized and even reduce stress. Sticking to a budget means you get to go on your dream vacation. Make your New Year’s resolution something worth doing.

Be Realistic

Again, don’t aim further than you can reach; that’s generally how a lot of resolutions get left by the wayside. Be realistic about your goals. If you have never even run a 5K, don’t try to start with a goal like running a marathon. Don’t try to save an unrealistic amount of money or lose an unrealistic amount of weight. Give yourself a chance, and set goals you can actually accomplish.

New Year’s Resolutions are easy to make and hard to keep. Set yourself up for success this year with these suggestions.

When you’re ready to celebrate your goals or success, check out Independence Bunting for premier and custom bunting or pull down for your event! Don’t forget, we’re always ready to help out with holiday, patriotic, and other special occasion decor. Explore our website, or reach out to us directly