New Year, New You! Tips for Making Your Resolution Stick

Setting a goal for the New Year? Here’s are some wise words for making your resolution stick, and how a counselor in Northeast Philadelphia can help.

Setting a New Year’s resolution is common, routine, and expected. So often, we set goals for ourselves like stop smoking, be a better spouse, lose weight, start exercising, be a more patient parent, have a better diet, or communicate better with others.

Unfortunately, soon after we forget about these resolutions. This “new you” you’d envisioned and sought quietly fades away. Disappointment sets in, while anxiety can increase and cause disruption in our mood and daily activities. We break our own heart.

This year, make your resolution stick with these tips.

10 Ways to Keep Your New Year’s Resolution

Be Mindful – You’ll never leave where you are until you decide where you’d rather be.
Be Consistent – Remain open, intentional and deliberate to follow through with YOUR new wanted behaviors.
Be Willing – em>Make a pledge to yourself right now, to declare that you are worth your time and energy. ― Deborah Day
Practice – In order to change behaviors, you have to CHANGE BEHAVIORS!
Dream big – Dreaming does matter. It allows you to see the person that you yearn to be.
Start small – Do not set goals that are unreasonable at this time. For example, if your goal is to exercise more, aim to work out two times per week instead of seven times per week.
Be Concrete – How will you count/measure/score being “a better spouse”? A more helpful way of setting this goal is to think of ways that you can measure success, for example, “I will say ‘thank you,’ ‘I love you,’ or ‘great job’” two times a day for three days a week.
Communicate – Let someone who is close to you know about your resolution so you can be supported and encouraged.
Take it slow – Life is not a race – but indeed a journey. Do not expect these behaviors and changes to happen overnight. Work slowly to add in these behavior changes into your daily life in order to progress.
Hug yourself often – Don’t beat yourself up, if you do not succeed the first time or meet a small goal that you set for yourself. Pick yourself up and give it another try with other plans and tools to use. I am reminded of a quote of the comedian, Carroll Bryant, “Know who you are, and be it. Know what you want, and go out and get it!”

How can Philly Family Life Counseling LLC, Dr. Gene Devers & Associates in Northeast Philadelphia help you achieve your New Year’s Resolutions?

• Assistance in creating realistic goals that can be achieved and built upon, empowering you to achieve bigger goals!
• Support in handling anxiety you may experience if you do not achieve or maintain your goal as planned.
• Encouragement to increase resiliency and learn from setbacks.
• Clarity to reflect on the last year and discover ways to live differently and those things you would like to change in the New Year.
• Coaching in finding ways to make changes to maintain this resolution you have set for yourself.
• Safe Environment to discuss your resolutions while learning tools and planning to enhance, begin, and change what is necessary to maintain the desired “NEW YOU.”

Call Philly Family Life Counseling today at 215/677-3810 to schedule an appointment! Usually, you can have an appointment within 48 hours.