5 Ways to Help You Keep New Year Resolutions

Let me start by quoting Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

I thought it would be good to get grounded before thinking of any resolutions or goals for the new year. As you and I know, of all the people who make resolutions 8% are successful in achieving their results (based on research conducted by Statics Brain – see chart below). However, keep in mind that you are 10 times more likely to achieve your goals if you set one.

News Years Resolution Statistics	Data
Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions	45%
Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions	17%
Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year’s Resolutions	38%
Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution	8%
Percent who have infrequent success	49%
Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year	24%
People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions

I’d like to continue to help you increase your success rate by being faithful to yourself. Get rooted and grounded in God’s desire for you and read Jeremiah’s verse each morning. This can serve as an anchor for you when you are struggling. Just thinking of God’s love and gifts he has for you, may cause you to think about how you can continue to be open to receive and participate in his plan. From this place where you feel your value and self-worth, I also recommend the following:

1. Be clear and keep it simple. Little mantras like “Move-Consume-Express” are similar to advertising jingles that stick in our brains. You may find yourself becoming more creative and finding opportunities to incorporate more of this in your daily life.

2. Choose accountability partners. This is a sure way of increasing your ability to achieve your goal.

3. Change your space and surroundings to help support your actions.

4. Plan and schedule activities to help you establish routines and good habits to move you closer to where you want to be.

5. Be gentle with yourself for being human when you have made choices that are not aligned to your original goals. God will be gentle with you so there is no need to beat yourself up. This is an opportunity to learn more about yourself. I always say that it’s okay if you make a poor choice as long as you learn from it.

Remember you can always begin again, again and again. It’s not about arriving because it you arrive and have caused others misery, you have not been successful in living life as God desires of you. Your attitude will be key to achieving and living life while teaching your family how to make changes. Your increased happiness should extend to those around you if you do this right.