The key to making New Year’s resolution you can keep and achieve is to set realistic goals that can be completed in a series of steps, so you can consistently tick off milestones throughout the year.
However, new research by Finder.com has found that Australians are a little sick of playing it safe with their New Year’s resolutions. One in three Aussies plan to take more risks in 2019, with 6.6 million people planning to do everything from skydiving to starting a business in the New Year. The data collected suggests that 12 per cent of Australians are pledging to get a tattoo in 2019, while nine per cent have their sights set on starting a business and seven per cent plan on quitting their job. Skydiving, snow sports and getting a piercing were also ranked as the top 10 New Year’s resolutions.
“It seems Aussies are sick of playing it safe and want to embrace risk in the new year,” says Bessie Hassan, Insurance Expert at finder.com.au.
Five ways to stay motivated and achieve your goals.
1. Make a weekly to-do list
Rather than making a list of all the huge goals you wish to achieve and things you want to change, instead make a weekly list of smaller tasks you can complete that will go towards achieving your larger goal.
2. Detox
And we don’t mean dieting. Cleanse your social media feeds of people or accounts that make you feel like you can’t achieve your goals, or no longer inspire you. Rethink your hobbies, extracurricular commitments and other community groups you might be involved with and decide if these all feed into your ultimate goals. If there are people in your life that aren’t supportive supportive or impact your life in a positive way, then it may be time to rethink that, too.
3. Prioritise your morning me time
This one is a hard task for those of us who are more ‘night owl’ than ‘early riser’, but getting up an hour earlier in the morning could be the key to fitting in time for that gym session, write another chapter, drink a luxuriously long coffee or time for meditation. Whatever your routine needs, fit it into an extra hour in the morning.
4. Put it in a place of prominence
Write down your goals, to-do lists, ideas and anything that inspired you and pin it up in a prominent place. Keep what you’re aiming for at the forefront of your mind, and remind yourself that everything you’re doing will be worth it in the end.
5. Re-evaluate, adjust and move forward
One of the biggest problems with keeping a New Year’s resolution is that at some point in the New Year you realise it isn’t working for you and abandon it. But it’s okay if you discover this new goal isn’t working for you. Re-evaluate the goal, adapt it to fit your new criteria, and move on.
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