10 ideas to ensure your New Year’s goals stick this year

With the new year just days away, many people are beginning to think about what types of changes—large and little—they'd want to make in their lives.

Some individuals don’t partake in New Year’s resolutions, but many feel the pressure to start off the new year in a healthy manner. On average, resolutions don’t last long: the second Friday in January, sometimes referred to as “Quitter’s Day,” is a popular point at which droves of individuals throw up the towel and return back to their old habits. 

But there are certain tips and strategies to making attainable objectives. 

Northeastern University psychology professor Aaron Daniels argues that when it comes to establishing goals and eliminating undesirable habits, it’s preferable to start gently. 

1. Set an alarm

Set an alarm in the morning in order to make the time, and think about if the adjustments you’d want to make are good for you. 

“Discipline works somewhat like a muscle in that the little discipline leads to more discipline, leads to more,” Daniels explains. 

2. Start small

“And holding off on the deadline for bigger goals—goals that take longer to get—when you do achieve them: we receive huge benefits to our sense of self,” he continues. 

“This is part of the tug and pull of goal-setting; you really do want to start smallish and show yourself that you can do this little thing, then build up,” Daniels adds. 

3. Listen to yourself

But it’s also crucial, he continues, to listen to yourself.

“Somebody who has never taken to running before ought to be open to the possibility that that might not be the way for them to do aerobic exercise,” he adds.

The point is, Daniels explains, to get it into the timetable. When you build behaviors into the routine, they become “harder to avoid.” 

4. Make it obligatory

It has to seem required; else you’ll find it hard to keep yourself to a new regimen. 

“You set the morning alarm so that there is time for you to do it,” Daniels adds. “And don’t wait for you to feel like doing it—you've got to just do it.”

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When it comes to the abandoning of habits, much of the same still holds: take tiny steps. It’s best to minimize before you eliminate.  

But depending on the individual habit, there are certain key aspects to consider.

5. Seek adequate support

“If we’re talking about something like alcohol, we may need clinical support around that,” Daniels adds. “You would want to let your medical doctor know about it, and schedule a couple extra appointments.” 

For those who suffer from drug use disorder, stopping cold turkey might really be life-threatening. If you or a loved one intend on using the new year as an occasion to stop or cut down on a drug, it is crucial to have a chat with a medical practitioner about how to go about it, Daniels says. 

6. Take time to reflect

For all those other behaviors that a person may dispense with on their own, it might require quite a bit of effort. 

“From what we know about dropping habits, it is important to consider all of the things that you do around that particular habit,” Daniels adds. “What do you do before it, and what do you do before that? In other words, what prompts you to take up the vape pen or the cigarette? It’s the location and context that we’re talking about.”

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7. Think large picture

That’s why it’s crucial for individuals to look about the wider picture while changing a habit: you need to understand the behaviors, settings and cognitive patterns — the “triggers” — that lead to the habit. Because it’s those actions, settings and cognitive patterns that help perpetuate it.

“You have to ferret out the structure of the habit, and by doing that you can start to walk yourself out of it,” Daniels explains. 

8. Replace the harmful habit

Daniels adds that getting rid of a harmful habit is simply the first step: it’s best to replace it with a new, healthier “and more pleasurable alternative.” 

Those new habits might encompass a broad array of activities, from joining a gym to volunteering in your community; or they could be as simple as attentive breathing. 

9. Try ‘belly breathing.’

A Mindfulness Fellow at Northeastern’s Center for Spirituality, Daniels is a major proponent of the advantages derived from so-called “belly breathing.” It’s the ideal bite-sized exercise that can be fit into a habit. 

“Say someone is trying to eliminate a half-a-pack-per-day cigarette habit? If I could replace that terrible habit and encourage a group of individuals to take five minutes 10 times a day to step away from whatever they’re doing, look off the horizon and participate in a very deep exhale – that would be incredible,” Daniels says. “Because what usually results is diaphragmatic breathing.” 

10. Stay optimistic

As to whether goal-setting frames work best, data shows that putting a positive spin on your objectives, rather only focusing about avoiding unpleasant or unwanted consequences, better helps you accomplish them.