How to Make New Year’s Resolutions That’ll Stick

Photo by Mohammed Shamaa on Unsplash

Happy Holidays! It’s Christmas which means that it’s almost New Years. I’m writing this while sitting alone in my empty apartment, precisely 6,366 km away from my family. Now that this year is almost over, I think I can speak for everyone when I say it was a bit grim. You know…pandemic, widespread job loss, online school, death! I admit that I spent much of this year feeling lost and alone and sad and way too introspective. Since this is generally the time of year when people make resolutions, goals and dreams that tend to fall off as soon as February, I thought I’d add to the pot and share a few of my hopes for the new year. And also the tips and tricks that I plan to use to honour them.

Part of the reason why people find it so difficult to stick to their resolutions, in my opinion, is that they are often so large and specific that they lead to a sense of burnout and defeatism fairly quickly. It’s not “I want to make small changes to lead a healthier life” but “I want to lose 50 pounds in a month”. Initially, there’s the high of doing something new and working towards a goal, but it’s gone before you ever achieve anything meaningful.

I listened to the book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear earlier this year and he said something that has stuck with me ever since. The author…