How to turn your tired resolutions into a new year's REVOLUTION

Yeah, yeah we’ve all heard the news: chances are you’re not going to achieve your new year’s resolutions. Depending on what research you read, about eleventy-billion percent of people fail. What we really need is a new year’s revolution! (We’re talking a LIFE OVERTHROW… not the WWE wrestling match )

We all have a looooong list of things we want to change about ourselves. Both the definitely-should list and the nice-to-have list. So even though you know you’re highly unlikely to stick to your resolutions, you still want a new year’s revolution, right?

We can’t help ourselves. It’s a brand new year and we’re caught up in the newness of everything and we want change. But how can you really make a new year’s revolution happen? How can you stick it out and actually turn your life around?

Fortunately, it’s not as hard as it seems, but you have to be committed and patient. Here are four steps to take this year to actually achieve your goals.

1. Pick a reasonable goal

It’s important to choose something that is achievable and is going to lead to an improvement in your everyday life. A lot of people choose goals that are unreasonable and unachievable in one year. This is very easy to do without realising it.

How do you make a new year’s revolution? Think of the thing that is stopping you from being the best person you can be. Keep it simple, but open to a challenge. For example, maybe you are not the best at keeping your room clean.

Use this free printable to plan your day this year.

2. Find the best method for you

The method that I recommend and works best for me is to break my goal into smaller chunks. If your overarching goal is to stay organised, try breaking it down like: keep my room clean and tidy, keep my school bag organised, plan out my week in advance, complete my to-do list each day.

Make a plan for the best way to complete your goal. Start simple. For example, if you are trying to keep your room clean, you might start by saying that you will do five minutes of tidying morning and night. Or you might commit to picking up three things from the floor every time you go into your room.

3. Stick to your plan

Once you’ve worked out your method, then you have to build it into your habits so you can stick to your plan. You may have some setbacks, but just keep at it – consistency is the real key to change.

You can do this by making it easy for yourself and being really clear about your why. Remember, this is for you and you alone. It helps to write down a list of all the reasons why you made your new year’s resolution in the first place. What will you get out of making this big change? How important is that to you? What would you give up to make it happen?

One of the best things you can do is get help if you need. Ask for support from your parents, teachers or friends. Research, research, research so you can become an expert in the thing you’re trying to change about yourself. The more you know, the more likely you’ll be to achieve your new year’s resolutions.

Above all, don’t be too hard on yourself!!! Making a mistake doesn’t mean you’ve failed, so just put it behind you so you can keep on going. Focus on all the times you did the right thing, not the one time you lapsed.

4. Remember your goals

One of the ways I have found to help me to remember my goals is to make a mood board. A mood board is a board (duh) that you put your goals on in the form of pictures. You could use pictures you take yourself or take them off the internet. You an even make a digital mood board or even use an app. Here are three good ones:

Say my new year’s resolutions was to keep my room tidy. I would put a picture of a very tidy room or a picture of my room after I had cleaned it to see the goal in an achievable way. Add pictures of how you will achieve it and just make one mood board for every goal from every category that you have. Hang your mood board in a place that you will be looking at every day, like your bedroom or bathroom so that you are constantly reminded and thinking about those goals. If you’ve gone the digital version, make your mood board your home screen.

If mood boards aren’t your thing, you can always write your goals down or type them out and hang the list in your room. This will be less effective though because images are more likely to catch your eye and you will look at it more. But, a list on the wall is still better than nothing, just don’t put it in a notebook. You will forget that your goals are in that notebook, it’s inevitable, so put it in a place you can see.

5. Genuinely commit

Pick a goal and work really hard to achieve it. Success doesn’t come from sitting around all day, it comes from trying, failing and doing everything you possibly can to achieve the goal you put in place. You won’t be able to make it happen in one day, it will take time and patience, but it will be worth it.

Remember, you chose your new year’s revolution for a good reason. That reason is to improve yourself and your life and fix what you’re not happy with. I’m not saying it won’t be hard, I’m saying it’s both achievable and worthwhile.

Feature image Photo by sandra lansue; climbing by Allan Mas; magic please by Leeloo Thefirst; resilience by Ann H; mood board by Rebecca