Steal My Anti-Resolution Strategy

“What’s your New Year’s resolution?” ...one of the first questions we all get during the first few weeks of the new year. Now I love goals, but New Year's resolutions? Eh, not so much. 

I looked up the definition of resolution, and it made sense to me why I don’t love this term or idea. A resolution is “a firm decision to do- or not do- something” according to the Oxford Dictionary or “the act of resolving” per Merriam-Webster. These definitions point to a finite “done” or “check-off the list” mentality. The problem with this is that many of us set new year’s resolutions to improve our health, whether it’s less of X or more of Y. But our health isn’t something we can check off our to-do list. We can’t take our blood pressure one time, and never check it again. We can’t eat foods rich in nutrients for one week and then go back to junk food for the rest of the year. I mean, yes, we could do each of those things, but it would be of little benefit to our health. Our health is for the rest of our lives. We need to make sustainable changes and habits that we can carry through, well, forever. We need to continue. Persist. Keep going. 

So let’s ditch the whole “resolutions” idea, and let’s strive to make some small yet powerful changes to our habits this year. A lot of what I’m about to recommend is actually quite the opposite of what you’re used to hearing, because much of it goes against what a lot of “goal setting” rules say. 

Typically goals need to be measurable and specific, or so we are told. My problem with this is that it lends itself easily into a black-and-white way of thinking, either I met my goal or I didn’t. Either I was successful or I failed. For example, your goal may be “I want to exercise for at least 20 minutes and at least 5 days every week.” What happens typically with a goal like this, is that you may have a few good, “successful” weeks in a row, say, during the month of January, when you are extra-motivated by the thought of a fresh new year. This is great! But what happens when you miss a week, or you “fail” a day because you didn’t meet your goal? When this happens, it’s easy for our brains to get discouraged,disheartened, and think “well I failed- I’ll try again next year.” Our brains naturally perceive the failure as a big roadblock to getting back on track, and view it as a “lost cause” since it wasn’t perfect. See what a slippery slope this can be?  

So instead, I like to make goals using the words “more” or “less.” For example, for a few years in a row during college, my new year's resolution was to simply drink more water. Not specifically 5 glasses a day, or a gallon a day, or any specific measurable amount. I just tried to drink more water than I had been normally consuming at the time, which wasn’t much. (In my defense, I was a busy college student, and I grew up drinking milk with all meals, so water just wasn’t ever a part of my routine.) For the first 2 years, I did up my water intake pretty significantly the first month or two of the year. After that, I would have some days that I drank more water, but overall I was far from the textbook “8 glasses a day” gal. But here’s the key: even if I only had 2 full glasses of water that day, guess what? That was more water than I previously would have drank in a day. This helped to keep me from getting discouraged and fully giving up on my water goal, because I wasn’t failing. I wasn’t consistent 100% of the time yet, but I wasn’t failing. 

Now what happened in the third year of my water goal? It stuck! It wasn’t just the first couple of months, but I found myself that December still consistently drinking more water, and significantly closer to the recommended amount on most days, too. Now there are very few days that I drink less than 80 ounces of water each day. 

Why do I tell this story? Because it’s a powerful example of how we need to be patient with ourselves, and really focus on long-term changes and habits. The first year I created my “water” resolution, I certainly didn’t think it would take over 3 years before it was a consistent, daily habit. I just knew that it was an important health goal, and that it was worth continuing to work at, 

We don’t start out perfect and simply continue on  perfectly. We get it wrong, we fail, we struggle, and we keep working at it until it becomes easier and becomes more consistent. This is true with any new skill! We have to practice to get better at it. 

So quit that all-or-nothing, success-or-fail mentality. It’s not helpful and will even make it more difficult for you to reach your goals. Instead, continue. Persist. Keep going. You walked for 10 minutes when your goal was to walk for 20? You still got yourself moving, celebrate! You exercised 1 day last week when you were aiming for 5? 1 day is better than zero! Continue. Persist. Keep going.

The same concept can apply for goals that involve “less,” such as “I will drink less soda.” If you’re someone who drinks a pop with every meal, going cold turkey immediately to zero sodas a day will probably not be sustainable for you, long-term. The research backs this up, over and over again: sudden, major, or drastic changes to your routine, especially when it comes to food, are a shock to our system. Furthermore, when it comes to “less,” especially cutting out an entire food, or in this case beverage, category, our brains feel deprived. Our brains naturally become fixated on what they “cannot” have, and they desire it more. So instead, start with “less” instead of “none.” Maybe this means for one meal each day you’re choosing a beverage other than soda. Once this feels like it’s a regular, normal part of your routine, try and drop another soda that you normally have during your day. Now you’re down to one pop a day instead of three a day: you’re drinking 66% less soda each day- that’s huge! And if there’s a day, or even a full week, that you have more than one soda? You’re still consuming less soda overall than you were previously. See how you’re still making progress, still moving forward, still improving? 

These small but mighty wins for your brain are huge in actuality. They help you build momentum, feel a sense of accomplishment, and help you want to keep working at it. This is imperative when you’re looking to make long-term, sustainable changes. 

So continue. Persist. Keep going. Your health is worth it, and it impacts the rest of your life.

Want more mindset shifts that will help you achieve your goals? Check out my blog post about Mindset Resets by clicking here!