This time each year resolve begins to dissolve, making New Year’s resolutions harder to reach. Untold numbers of people set New Year’s resolutions to change their life in one way or another, but never achieve them. According to Stunning Motivation, people tend to set unrealistic New Year goals, such as trying to lose as much as ten pounds in one month. While technically possible to achieve, it cannot happen in a healthy way. By setting up such impractical goals, people end up becoming demotivated from the beginning or overwhelm themselves. Setting up tiny attainable goals instead, motivates people to start and continue with their plan. As people start on their goals, they grow confident through the process and continue to work to achieve their goals.

“I look at goal setting just like I do a big project. Sometimes, although doable, a big project must be cut up into chunks. This allows the goal setter to have steps to reach their goal,” psychology teacher Tina Guest said.

After they set up their goals, people need to create a plan to enact. No matter how fun or productive daydreaming may seem, just thinking or dreaming about their goals does not make it happen. People must create an actionable plan, and schedule out what they plan to do each day to help them start. When people plan out their goals and what steps they shall take, they become majorly committed and motivated to work to achieve their goals. After setting mini goals, breaking them further down into one to two goals can help motivate one to start because it does not seem too overwhelming to start and it also makes it easier to achieve.

However, people also end up breaking their goals down too tiny, which leads them to lose track and give up. Only by breaking the goals down into one or two mini-goals can one feel motivated to work on them. 

 Now that the person made a plan, now they need to take action; continuing through with that plan constantly seems to embody the most massive hurdle for people to jump through. People must stick to the plan they made, and enforce discipline in order to commit themselves to their goals. Nothing comes easy in life, especially when it comes to achieving New Year’s resolutions. If the person struggles, securing support can come in handy to help oneself. Securing support can also help someone hold themselves accountable and motivate them to continue working on their goal. They can also text or call their support system regarding their progress, or if feeling unmotivated.

“One way I stay committed to goals is to give myself a constant reminder of what I am trying to do. For instance-I am learning to let things go that are out of my control. So to remind myself of that, I have sticky notes all over my house that say ‘Let that stuff go,’” Guest said.

Keeping track of their progress or results helps an individual stay persistent in their goals. When one keeps track of their progress or results, it motivates them to keep going and stay committed. People either lose track of their progress or enter into a stagnant period. When entering into a stagnant period, looking back on their progress thus far can help remind a person of their advancement. This will provide a great sense of pride and will make people want to continue to further increase their results, which will eventually lead them to achieve their goals.