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How to conquer your New Year’s resolutions

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – On Jan. 1, some people will completely change their life or at least attempt to for their New Year’s resolutions. It’s quite often that those resolutions are dropped by the end of a few weeks. So why do so many of us give up and fall off the tracks?

Clinical Psychologist Dr. Courtney Johnson from I.U. Health says a big problem is that people tend to set goals that are way too big and way too vague.

Instead, here are some tips to get you through until at least the end of January:

  • Pick a goal that’s meaningful to you; Don’t just pick something you see on social media.

    • Are you losing weight to get healthy or just to impress others?
  • Break the large goal into smaller more attainable goals that you can set for every day week or month
  • Make sure you celebrate those milestones
  • Tell other people to help you feel accountable
  • Don’t give up!

“So I think one thing I try to remind people when we are setting goals is it is normal to fail. You know things are not normally linear in our successes,” said Dr. Johnson. “So we eventually tick upwards so the thought is if you’re doing weight watchers if you go over one day don’t quit and start over next month, start over the next day keep at it don’t give up and don’t beat yourself up on it, it’s normal to have setbacks.”

What if you binge on those chocolate chip cookies and doughnuts a week after you started a new resolution? You reset and get back at it. When you make resolutions realistic, there is a greater chance that you will keep them throughout the year, incorporating healthy behavior into your everyday life.