MAKING A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION - AND STICKING TO IT.

The whole ‘New Year - New Me’ trend seems to have become somewhat of a joke, with most people dusting off last year’s resolution and popping it in the calendar like its as good as new. Come mid June the social media posts start their circulation with some claiming that they planned to lose 15 kilos by the end of the year and they now only have 24 kilos more to go. While the giggle factor might be good in the short term, the truth is, that for the long term it can be quite damaging to ones mental health and self esteem. The more you let your goals fizzle out without being achieved, the less likely you are to achieve any future goals you make.

It’s a well known fact that the peak time for new people joining a gym is early to mid January and most of them are cancelled within 3-6 months. The more you tell yourself ‘I’ll quit smoking after my holiday,’ or ‘I’ll go on a diet as of Monday,’ or the classic ‘I’ll start exercising and join a gym in the new year,’ the more you will binge as a way of making the most of the time you have left with your crux, making it even harder to stick to when the time does come when you have to make a change. Personally, I am a big believer in the saying ‘If you’re going to do it, then do it now!’ Because if you really want to achieve something, you’re not going to want to wait, you’ll want to achieve it as soon as possible. In saying that, New Years is a great excuse to have a long hard think about where you would like to be by next New Year’s Eve.

I have been making New Year’s resolutions every year since I was 7 years old - and I’ve not failed one yet. The secret is that I don’t just make one goal and then when I fall off the wagon three weeks in, just give up saying ‘Oh well, I tried and I failed.. maybe next year’ which is only 11 months, 1 week away. I make a list of 10 things I would like to achieve throughout the year ahead and I aim to complete at least 5 of them. I keep my goals varied in difficulty to ensure the highest chance of success. I only make two of my goals difficult challenges, and a minimum of two goals that are fairly easy, and the rest moderate in difficulty. It’s no good writing down ten things that are going to be nearly impossible, or downright dangerous to achieve (like aiming to lose 50 kilos when you weigh 110). There have been some years where I have managed to cross off every single one, and some years where I have only just scraped through by the skin of my teeth (or the skin of my jaw bone, since I no longer have any teeth). But the main thing is, I have managed to stick to my goals every single year, regardless of what has happened during that time. Even the year my brother Ian was killed in a car accident, and the year my 5-week-old baby cousin died of heart failure, I still managed to tick off my 5 goals.

The best way to guarantee the highest success rate, is to pick two goals that can be broken down into a small task that you do on a daily basis, like writing in a journal every day, or listening to at least 1 minute of an audiobook each day (both of those were goals I had made for 2024 and got to tick them both off my list). These small, daily goals are the best way to form a new habit, because while you may miss one day here or there (like I did with my journal writing), by doing the task on most days, by the end of the year it will be a well formed habit that becomes part of your daily routine. 

Your next two should be long term goals that you would like to work towards throughout the year, like losing 10 kilos, making a change in your diet, finding or starting a new activity, like joining a book club, or starting a new TAFE or uni course. These goals will be ones that you may not need to work on every single day, but you will have to be consistent in order to reach your end goal. 

Then two goals should be used toward making changes in your living environment, like sorting out the spare room, doing up a particular part of the garden, cleaning out the back shed, or sorting through the wardrobes and getting rid of old clothes. These are goals that could be achieved in one solid day of hard work, or done slowly throughout the year whenever you have the time. The last four goals can be a mixture of anything else you would like to include, from wanting to upgrade your phone, to finding a new job, saving for a holiday, or decluttering your home and lifestyle. A great resolution to include could be toward improving your social life, or making a difference to someone else. Call someone you’ve not spoken to for a while and let them know you’re still thinking of them, volunteer at a local thrift shop, or even just aim to telling one random stranger a week that they look good, you like their hairstyle, or their t-shirt is awesome. No matter what compliment you give someone, you can guarantee it will make them feel good and make their entire day just that little bit easier, thanks to you lifting the cloud hanging over them, even just a little.

With ten goals to choose from, there’s no excuse for not achieving at least one of them. And whatever ones you don’t manage to cross off, you can dust them off and bring them with you for the next year - and I can guarantee that after rewriting the same goal two or three times, you’ll bust ass to get it off your list - just on principle, if not from sheer annoyance. One of my recycled goals was to start blogging regularly - and I’ll be damned if I’m going to write that out yet again for NEXT year’s resolutions. After winning a Quality Business Award in 2024, I really want to focus more on making the most of my website and developing it in areas I have wanted to delve into since opening up almost 6 years ago. So I hope to share more of my book reviews, to help other authors get their work out there, and to develop my own writing so I can work towards new publications in the future (here I am already thinking of what to put on my 2026 list - at least no one can say I don’t think ahead anymore).

So here’s to surviving another year and all that has been thrown your way. Be thankful for everything you have in your life, even if it’s just the fact that you have air in your lungs, and a good enough internet connection to be able to read this (coz let’s face it, being able to read my content should make anyone thankful - even if its because you’re thankful you don’t have to live with me and put up with me every day of the week). I wish all my fellow readers and writers a successful 2025, and I look forward to reading more great books, poems, short stories and reviews from you all. 

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