How to Stay Motivated In the New Year
It usually doesn’t take long until people can’t stay motivated for their resolutions. Even if you follow the advice we gave above about rethinking your resolutions and are determined to stick with them, it can still be easy to “slip up.” In fact, January 17th is the day known for new year’s resolutions fizzling out.
If you’re finding that you’re already having trouble staying motivated to keep up with your resolutions, here are our tips for getting back on track:
Get Your Friends or Family Involved
It may help to have a small amount of added pressure by telling our friends or family about our resolutions. When we put it out there and tell others about our goals, they will likely to check in and ask us about how they are going. Our friends or family can hold us accountable and encourage us throughout the process of creating new habits or accomplishing new goals. We can even enlist a friend or family member to make the same resolution as us, so that we have someone to go through the journey with.
Give Yourself Incentives
We aren’t likely to feel motivated to accomplish things if we don’t have some sense of satisfaction along the way. Once you get past certain milestones with your resolution, be sure to reward yourself for your hard work. Giving ourselves incentives here and there will reinforce that what we are doing is worthwhile.
Remember Why You Started
For the moments where you are seriously considering abandoning your goals, take a moment to pause and recall why you started what you’re doing in the first place. Think back to what your values are and how your resolution will align with them. When we think back to exactly why we started the process in the first place, we are more likely to feel motivated to not give up.
Acknowledge That It’s Okay to Have Setbacks
Striving for perfection will only be met with disappointments. Throughout the process, remind yourself that minor missteps and mistakes are perfectly okay and normal to experience. Release some of the pressure you are putting on yourself and recognize how far you have come. We will all have moments where things get tough, so we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves for it.
One Last Note
After the past year we’ve had, it may feel difficult to focus on any kind of self-improvement right now. In fact, the very idea of devoting our time and energy to resolutions may leave us feeling more stressed or anxious. We are still going through a lot of changes and upsetting circumstances with the pandemic as well as social inequities and unrest. Simply doing what you need to do to get through the day is plenty right now. If you feel committed to making and implementing certain goals, that is great. But if you just need to take it all day by day, that is perfectly okay too. Choose whatever you think is best for your mental health.
If you are feeling stuck and seeking change, but are unsure of where to start, you can request an appointment with one of our compassionate therapists today.
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