Three Steps to Keep Your New Year’s Resolution

Rising Resolutions//Commencing 2026, many people are setting new goals for themselves, but not many people end up sticking to these ambitious goals ; thus, making it important that you choose the right resolutions that you're capable of accomplishing. (Photo by Stella Lin)

All over the world, January 1st marks the day of new beginnings and a fresh start. Dating back to over 4,000 years ago, the act of making New Year’s Resolutions has stood the test of time. Since thousands of years ago, humans have not stopped growing and making an effort to be better. These resolutions are a testament to this behavior as they are done to acknowledge mistakes made in the past and to improve in the future. People often set a variety of big goals, whether it's to exercise more, make more money, or travel to new places. Although these are all possible to achieve in a year, many get overwhelmed and quit within the first few weeks. However, with a few consistent practices and discipline, achieving your goals this year can be much more manageable.

1. Divide the goal into smaller sections

While your entire goal may seem impossible right now, setting smaller, achievable goals can be the building blocks to your overall success. Setting quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily goals that work towards the bigger picture is easier to maintain and not so daunting of a task. For example, if the goal is to lose 50lbs, which is a difficult task, you change your goal to losing just 1 pound per week; then, the task becomes much more manageable and easier for your brain to comprehend. Additionally, when you're able to lose 1 pound consistently each week, it teaches your brain better discipline in these beginner goals and allows you to set more advanced goals in the future.

2. Plan out actionable steps to take

Setting a big goal, without writing out the steps needed to achieve this goal, is a surefire way to quit your resolutions early. Rather than just trying to cold-turkey yourself into the new year and the goal you have for it, identify a set of tasks that are what you need to do to meet that overarching goal. What this means in simpler terms is to create tasks that are so simple you can do without thinking. For example, if your goal is to read 15 books this year, maybe one of those steps to reach that goal is the decision to read 10 pages of a book every day before bed. This will not only work towards your goal, but also chances are you are going to be invested in the book by the tenth page and continue reading and actually finishing books to reach that resolution by the end of the year. Whatever goal or set of goals you have, break down a list of smaller steps you need to take in a digestible way, so that you can slowly yet steadily finish the race and build your endurance to stay consistent.

3. Make progress tangible

Although you may be putting in the work and consistency every day to keep your resolution, it can be hard to see progress when you do the same thing every day. Having a physical way to track and look back on your progress will help so that when it gets difficult to continue, there is some motivation to see how far you have come already. One creative way to track progress is putting an item in a jar every time you complete the task, for example, buttons, coins or marbles. Additionally, different colors may represent different tasks. This is just one way, but many people also refer to journals, calendars, or reminder apps to track their progress.

Setting goals can be great when the right steps are taken to achieve them. By breaking down our big and small goals into different techniques we can use to actually stick to them and stay consistent with them, it will help to pay off in the long run. Obtaining what you want takes work, and it takes time. When you create little habits, the habits you build day-to-day, turn to week-to-week, month-to-month, and eventually, year-to-year. Thankfully, this year is another opportunity to make achievable goals and to actually follow them in a variety of ways, whether it's through smaller goal setting, actionable steps, or progress tracking. Hopefully, these three tips will help you keep your resolutions and ultimately help you improve in the new year.