More than half of us will quit our New Year’s resolutions within three months or less. That disheartening state is from a recent survey by topcashback.com.
The top three areas for resolutions are:
- Heath and wellness—69%
- Personal growth and habits—53%
- Finance—47%
In a conversation with Doctor Joseph Sofianek, a physical and lifestyle medicine provider, he shares how we can stick with what we want to change.
There is a lot of enthusiasm at the beginning of the year providing a fresh start for New Year’s resolutions. However, not everyone sticks to them.
“Change is hard. We all go into it with the very best of intentions. See our life maybe in a little different way. And then I don’t think we give it enough time and effort to vet out a plan to try and make these changes happen,” says Sofianek.
A SMART goal stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. Goals need to be specific, but you also want to have some compassion for yourself. It is important to reflect on how you’re doing with your goal and modify it if needed.
“I think that it’s important to realize that it’s gonna be really hard to be a hundred percent on your goals all the time,” says Sofianek. “I don’t think that’s realistic. I think you periodically look back on your successes say over the previous week and you celebrate those. Then you look at some of the struggles and challenges you had, and you look at that to try to learn from it.”
Even if you need more than one chance to make some changes in your life, it’s not a failure to have to try again.
