New Year’s is a great time to set up some new goals and to plan for your future. Even though some resolutions are hard to maintain, setting up goals and objectives is a good way of motivating yourself and to figure out what you want for the new year.
The most common New Year’s resolutions are always pretty vague: losing weight, studying more and getting a better job are always popular and worthy objectives. The problem is that they’re too broad and complex. By setting up concrete and achievable goals with a simple plan that you can track, you’ll actually have a shot of accomplishing these objectives. Check out five New Year’s resolutions that are useful and achievable for the coming year:
Learn a new skill
Learning new things can help you feel motivated and excited, be that if it’s learning a new language or a sport. This is a very popular resolution that can also get complicated and easily forgotten if you don’t have a plan to follow. During the first days of the year be sure to sign up to online courses or to pay for a service; doing this makes you accountable for your new hobby, pushing you to learn the new skill while you’re inspired and interested.
Quit a bad habit
Whether you want to quit smoking or reduce your alcohol intake, it’s important to set realistic milestones and to think about the long term plan. According to James Clear, expert on human habits and potential, you should replace bad habits with other habits that are more positive, finding something that fills out that same function in your life. If you want to quit smoking, replace the habit with chewing gum or with a fiddling toy, progressively decreasing your intake and looking to achieve the most realistic and better results.
Cultivate your relationships
The holidays remind us of how busy we are and how tough it can be to make time for your family and friends. If you want to see your parents more often then plan for your trips and getaways ahead of time to get the best deals possible and ensure that you won’t forget later on.
Reduce your social media use
Reducing your social media and cellphone use is a valid objective that can be much harder than you expect. Family therapist Kate Stoddard spoke with The Huffington Post and said that when you look through your social media feed you should spend 10 seconds on each post, deciding if you want to keep going or not. The more time you spend on each post the less mindless the whole act becomes. “You get to control how and why you use it, not the other way around,” says Stoddard.
Cook more often
Cooking is a time consuming activity that can get very boring, but it’s also a necessary one that can help you stay healthy and save money. Psychologist Ryan Kelly says that in order to cook more you need to set some goals, scheduling your weeks in advance and declaring how many times you’ll be eating out and how many days you’ll be cooking in. “It’s likely that the stress relief of saving some money and the pride of cooking healthy meals will increase the likelihood of success,” says Kelly.
