Many of us make New Year’s Resolutions in the wind up to New Year’s Eve, and then by the end of February, they are long forgotten.
The most common broken resolutions are to get out of debt, lose weight, quit smoking, and be more relaxed.
According to a University of Scranton survey, around 45% of people make New Year’s resolutions.
However, only 8% will accomplish them.
A common reason we fail to accomplish our resolutions is because we set goals that are almost impossible to reach.
The truth is, many of us still have to become the person that is capable of achieving our audacious goals.
This is not the time to give up hope!
Instead, in the coming year, we can focus on the tangible actions that will bring us closer to achieving our New Year’s resolutions.
Here’s a list of 13 action-packed resolutions we can use to transform each one of us into that person who makes their dreams come true:
1. Make a new friend each month
Human connection with others is one of the most important aspects of being human.
And having friends increases our sense of well-being.
Commit to getting to know an acquaintance, a co-worker’s family, or join a meet-up group for a hobby that you are interested in.
2. Do something nice on a daily basis
It can range from something small like paying someone a compliment to something significant like giving blood.
Knowing we are making a difference increases our own happiness and sense of achievement.
Commit to being the person that makes others feel special.
3. Let go of needing to be right
Everyone can learn from opening our minds and genuinely listening to what other people have to offer.
Practising humility is a sure way to change our need to be right and prove others wrong.
Practising humility does not mean that we have to accept their beliefs and ideas.
When we have true confidence in our own choices, we don’t have to prove anything.
Commit to keeping an open mind.
4. Save a little more
Most of us don’t have a pension fund or a substantial sum of money in our bank accounts.
Making automatic investments is a small step we can make to remedy this problem.
When we receive a bonus or pay increase, we can put that money into our savings.
It’s easier to invest that money when we don’t have to think about it and when it’s automatically taken out.
Commit to making sure that a portion of our salary is deposited into a savings account and/or pension fund each pay period.
5. Change your retail habits
Shopping is a difficult pleasure to give up for many of us.
Instead, look at where you are spending the most money and then limit your shopping to those places.
When making a purchase, opt for quality over price.
Good quality items last longer and will not need to be replaced as frequently as a lower-cost one.
Other great ideas include using coupons or discount codes and go thrift and consignment shopping.
Commit to spending less and saving more.
6. Start a new routine
How boring to do the same thing every day. But that is what we typically do.
What can you add to your daily routine to make it more fresh and exciting?
It doesn’t have to be anything drastic, it can be something as simple as changing your route to work or reading five pages of a book each morning.
Commit to adding something new to your daily routines.
7. Avoid elephant traps
If we want to be more productive in 2020, we can start by putting away our phones and closing the internet browser on our computers.
The vast majority of text messages, e-mails, phone calls, and social media updates can wait.
This discipline gets us focused on our essential tasks and limit our tendency towards procrastination.
Commit to focusing on the important and not urgent.
8. Do something on your bucket list
Doing one new thing each year of our lives from now until we die, will have lead to us living an incredibly fulfilled life.
Let’s prepare to scuba dive with tropical fish, climb that mountain all the way to the summit, go tandem skydiving, or mentor an at-risk youths.
Commit to doing one new thing each year for the rest of your life.
9. Turn off technology
It’s a beneficial idea to turn off our phones while at important meetings, while we are sleeping while spending time with someone, or when trying to focus on being productive.
Our phones are a more significant distraction than we will ever admit to.
While we’re playing on our phones, life is passing us by.
Commit to being fully present.
10. Start journaling
We all have feelings, thoughts, and things that make us happy, but many of us commit the mistake of sharing it all on Twitter or Facebook.
The best thing to do would be to start a journal.
It’s private to you, it’s easy to re-read and reflect on, and it doesn’t offer unsolicited advice for our problems.
Commit to journaling your thoughts and feelings daily.
11. Believe that obstacles are part of the plan
Life isn’t easy.
The challenges we have to overcome in life serve to develop us and assist us in personal growth.
Each hardship we go through shapes us into a stronger, more resilient person.
Commit to trusting that whatever we are going through is part of a bigger plan instead of resisting and attempting to control the order of life.
12. Speak to yourself kindly
Surely, we can try to be our own best friends each day?
The best friend that gives ourselves empowering compliments.
The next time we let a negative thought fester in our thinking, let’s take a moment to consider what our friends would say about us.
It is only when we learn to treat and speak to ourselves more kindly that we become better partners too!
Commit to talking to yourself as if you were talking to a valued friend.
13. Get to know yourself
What qualities do we express when we are the best version of ourselves?
And what qualities at our worst?
What brings out the best in us?
And what brings out the worst in us?
What can we do to avoid situations that bring out our worst qualities?
Commit to determining your strengths and weaknesses and see how your character traits are best used for success.
To boss your 2020 you need to act on your resolutions and here you have thirteen to get you started.
If you make a resolution commit to accomplishing it. Choose to be amongst that elite 8% who accomplish their resolutions.
This year, focus on the tangible actions that will bring you closer to achieving our New Year’s resolutions.
Do that and you will transform yourself into that person who makes their dreams come true.
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