Each new year provides an opportunity to create resolutions, things you should have already been doing the year before. According to Digital Spy, there are resolutions that continuously come up year after year. In 2013 the most common resolution in Los Angeles was to “read more books”. There are always the old standby resolutions to save money, workout more and lose weight. A more recent resolution is “spending less time on Facebook” or other social media outlets. The majority of the top forty resolutions of 2013 were small changes in everyday life. For instance, watching less TV or calling more instead of texting. All of these resolutions seem like simple tasks when moving into the new year. However, it has become abundantly clear when I reflect on my own New Year’s resolutions that the majority have been failed or forgotten attempts. And I am not the only one.
In a recent article, Forbes estimated that only 8 percent of all New Year’s resolutions are achieved. In looking at statistics Forbes found that about 64 percent of people kept their resolutions for about a month and by sixth months only 46 percent felt they were sticking to their goals. With these staggering numbers in front of me I tried to think of reasons why I failed to achieve my goals in the long term. There are three main ways to create a habit or implement a new one and make it stick. Firstly, write it down and make sure it’s doable and not just a fantasy. Second, tell some friends or family about it, if they know what you are doing it creates a sense of accountability. Lastly, know that you are in control of the outcome and this isn’t someone else’s goal. Right now I am working on keeping up with my own resolutions and implementing this system to see them through.