set yourself up for success - how to stick to your resolutions
The new year is upon us and everyone likes to make new years resolutions. Despite the new variant of COVID sparking fear in everyone this was something that was easily predictable (viruses mutate, that’s just what they do), let’s do what we can and look forward to a new year regardless of what COVID is doing.
I often say that I don’t make any resolutions but the truth is that I often resolve to do something different. I can’t help it. I’m the kind of person that would set up goals for me to achieve over the summers between college semesters. My mom used to make us have activities over the summer holidays in grade school: ensuring that we were not sitting at home all day doing nothing.
Last year my resolutions were to essentially get back into shape. I wrote specific weight lifting goals for myself as well as the goal to do 100 ab exercises and 100 pushups every day. I met my lifting goals. I didn’t do 100 pushup or ab exercises everyday. I did do them most days out of the this past year though.
I also had a learning goal to do my flashcards everyday in 2021 - which I was able to do. There were days when I didn’t learn as much as I should have and days when I could have learned more, but the flashcards were done and given how hectic fellowship can be with 12 hour days, I’m pretty happy that I was able to accomplish this.
Resolutions are difficult to maintain and most people don’t stick with them. This is largely due to poor planning and poor resolution-making. Below are my best tips for making resolutions that are stickable.
1. Input goals vs output goals
Almost everyone wants to lose weight or fit into clothes they used to wear or get more in shape. The problem with these goals, well there are a lot, but the main one is that they are focused on a specific outcome. In a lot of ways, the specific outcome is not entirely dependent on us. It’s difficult to guarantee a specific amount of weight loss because there are a lot of variables that cannot be controlled: hormones, mental sanity, needing to take a break, unforeseen circumstances, vacations, etc.
Since it’s difficult to control anything and everything, making a resolution that is purely input-based is much easier to achieve and puts the ball in your court.
Above, I mentioned two resolutions that were input-based — 1) 100 pushups and 100 ab exercises daily, and 2) doing flashcards every day. Whether I do these every day is entirely in my control (barring any injuries or computer glitches). On the other hand, my specific weight lifting goals were output-based goals.
Examples of input goals (not mine):
run 100 miles over the year
do 100 push ups everyday
read 36 books this year
2. daily minimum
If you choose to aim for an output goal, setting a minimum daily goal is the best method to ensure that you stay on target towards your resolution. Chipping away, little by little, is the best way to tackle those bigger tasks.
Trying to shave off 10 pounds over the course of the year is easily divided into sticking to your daily caloric intake. Trying to hit my weight lifting goals meant that I needed to develop a plan, and build my way back up to my 405-pound deadlift.
This works really well if you make the minimum really, borderline stupidly small. Interestingly, setting a minimum of just showing up to the gym, will get me to the gym and doing something. And I end up staying longer than intended. Setting a minimum of running for 2 minutes, will usually get you to run longer than 2 minutes. Making the daily minimum stupidly easy gives you an easy boost of momentum to move towards your goals.
Examples:
Run 1 mile a day
Do 10 pushups 10 times over the course of the day
Read 10 pages every day
3. don’t aim for perfection
Most of the time aiming to be perfect and never mess up is a surefire way to burn out or fail to even try. If you miss a day or two on your diet over the course of a month or a year, it’s not going to matter. For any goal, being perfect is not a prerequisite and is counterproductive.
Habit is what matters when building a skill or aiming for a goal. One or two days off will not derail most of your progress if you’re still working towards your goals on the other days.
4. keep track on paper
It’s easy to slip when you aren’t holding yourself accountable. I’ve posted before about habit trackers before. Writing down your goals and actually keeping track of your progress is the best and cheapest way to stay on target. When motivation is low, you can force yourself to get to the gym or stick to your goal just based on not wanting to miss a day. Keeping the streak alive has ensured that schlep it to the gym even on day when I don’t want to.
Examples:
Paper calendar
habit tracker
Apple Watch activity rings
5. don’t tell anyone
If I tell my family I want to improve my deadlift to 450 pounds, they will tell me that I shouldn’t, I’ll get injured, and I’m fine the way I am. Cool, but I still want to deadlift 450 pounds. Why? Because I want to see if I can.
So I rarely tell anyone my resolutions because I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. This flies in the face of most resolution advice. Telling trusted people may help keep you accountable, but I’ve found that most people are busy living their lives to worry about your resolution, especially when they’ve forgotten their resolutions two weeks into the year.
Sometimes, telling other people means that they feel obligated to provide their (mostly negative) feedback about your resolution. I don’t have time for that kind of negativity.
I do just fine keeping myself accountable to myself and my calendar. My calendar is my most used accountability tool. Habit trackers work well too. Honestly, any system that you have to answer to at the end of the day is the best to stick to whatever resolutions you choose.
Examples:
idk just don’t put it on blast
I once told a friend I’d give her $100 per week to help keep me accountable to a weekly writing habit. even with the opportunity to get $100 by just asking me a question, she promptly forgot.
Notice I didn't talk about motivation. Motivation is not always around and like momentum, it is a cruel mistress. The system above is designed to keep you accountable to you without the aid of motivation. By forcing yourself to come to terms with whether you are moving towards your resolutions on a daily basis, you are made to confront success or failure. Failure is fine as long as you learn from it.
Hopefully, these help you. If you need help brainstorming how to track or set up daily minimums let me know. This is all mostly habit formation which is pretty easy to hack once you understand the habit loop.
Let me know what your resolutions are. I’ll help keep you on track without charging $100 per week.