It’s officially New Year’s Resolution season - that time of year when many of us take stock of various aspects of our lives and select various areas to improve or change. And, for most people, making the resolution is about as far as it goes. Some folks will make some initial attempts to bring their resolutions to fruition, but they will typically fall by the wayside by February. If you’ve been a regular gym-goer in years past, you recognize this as the annual resolution traffic jam, where lots of newbies start coming to the gym to kick off January. By February, most of them don’t show up anymore and it’s typically just a few new folks who have built the habit of going to the gym more regularly. 

It’s largely the same story for most resolutions or pretty much any changes people decide to make to their habits. But, changing habits is hard, as anyone knows who has tried (successfully or not) to quit smoking, eat healthier, get more exercise, go back to school, learn a new skill, etc. 

Everyone makes their New Year’s resolutions with good intentions, so here are a few tips that may help you achieve your goals and make those positive changes in 2021.

Create a Morning Routine

Any changes we want to make to our lives typically start when we get up in the morning. One great way to have regular successful days, doing just about anything, is to set up a morning routine to get your day started off on the right track. When you’re trying to reinforce an existing habit or create a new one, routine and repetition are your tag team partners toward success. 

Plenty of new habits you might be trying to create can start as you begin your day. Plan to eat healthier? It starts with breakfast. Looking to find time for some daily meditation or positive affirmations? What better time than the morning? Looking to add more exercise to your routine? A daily morning workout can charge your batteries for the rest of the day. 

Even if the new habit you're trying to form is something you do in the evening, kicking off each day with a regular routine and plan can help you throughout the rest of the day. Each morning can include working out your daily schedule, so you are sure to have time to read that personal development book in the evening or getting a good night’s sleep. 

Get Some Regular Sleep

Hectic schedules can often mean that many (most?) of us are somewhat sleep-deprived most of the time. It doesn’t take much research to learn how much impact sleep has on our health, mental acuity, and general mood. So, even if ‘getting more sleep’ isn’t one of your official New Year’s resolutions, it can help you achieve virtually every other goal on your list.

Want to exercise more? Looking to start a cool side hustle project? Interested in having a more positive attitude throughout the day? In every case, getting regular sleep will only help. Even if a goal seems to really require more hours in the day to achieve, don’t think that cutting back on sleep is likely to yield positive returns over the long term - unless you’re that rare person who is somehow sleeping 12 hours a day right now. Basically, getting into a regular sleep cycle (even if it isn’t the 8 hours that we all hear is the ideal number) will have positive impacts on your productivity, health, and mental well-being. All of which will help you achieve your goals.

Believe you can Achieve your Goals

Whether it’s the Law of Attraction, Power of Positive Thinking, or explained in some other school of thought, it’s generally true that achieving virtually any goal (particularly challenging ones) requires you to actually believe in your ability to succeed. While believing in yourself isn’t a guarantee of success, the opposite (believing you will fail) will almost always hold true. 

Write down your goals and then put some actual positive affirmations behind each one. You should also reinforce those positive thoughts on a daily basis. Every goal you set is likely to bump up against challenges. You’ll be distracted, find that some steps are more difficult than you thought, run into unexpected hurdles that life throws at you, etc. It’s during these times that believing in your ability to achieve your goals can help keep you motivated and moving forward. 

Hopefully, these tips can help you make your 2021 resolutions a reality!