How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions by Starting Small

Did you give up on your New Year’s resolution yet? No? Good for you. Because the statistics certainly aren’t in your favor.

US News estimates that 80% of people abandon their New Year’s resolution by the second week of February.

Strava says most people abandon their goals by January 19th.

One of the most common resolutions is to exercise more. So, it’s no surprise that gym membership sales spike in January. Unfortunately, the effect doesn’t last long. By February sales slow down again.

The allure of the New Year is a strong one. It’s a chance to start over. Rebuild. Reform.

A new year is a chance to turn yourself into that person you always wanted to become.

It’s just tough.

And that’s why people quit.

True, some people are able to drop 300 pounds, but most of us don’t have the drive. We give up too easily.

Improving ourselves is difficult.

I hadn’t made a New Year’s resolution in a decade, until the end of 2019. We were at a New Year’s Eve party, and everyone was being pressured by the host to come up with a resolution.

Not having prepared for this, I pulled one out of thin air.

The year before I’d thrown a party. One of the guests asked where the recycle bin was. I told her it was under the sink. (It was just a garbage can.)

I will never forget the look of disappointment on her face. The air between us thickened and for the rest of the night I could tell she thought less of me. A few weeks later she saw me throw a plastic bottle of vodka into a garbage can on the street and she called me a monster.

And I think about this.

When our party host waved her New Year’s stick at me and pressured me into picking a resolution, I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“I’m going to recycle more.”

A bunch of peopled booed (we were a bit drunk) and said things like, “That’s not a real resolution.”

But the host told them to hush and we moved on to some drinking games. Then a few of us went back to my place to play beer pong and get proper wasted.

The next day I woke up, piled all our cans into a bag, and marched them out to the garage, and dumped them the garbage can.

Two hours later, I’d realized what I’d done.

Woops.

If I was a meme, I’d be a Picard Facepalm.

It wasn’t even noon on January 1st and already I’d failed. 2020 wasn’t setting itself up to be a great year. (NO KIDDING.)

I wanted to undo my mistake, but my friend had already dumped more garbage on top of the cans. The liquid-y gross kind. The smelly kind. The thought of digging through garbage when hungover didn’t appeal to me, so I just left the cans in there.

But I did feel guilty about it.

And the next day I improved. Right before I was about to throw some cardboard into the garbage, I stopped myself. Instead of tossing it, I found a large plastic storage container in the basement and labelled it PAPER. I labelled a second one PLASTIC.

Now I had two bins in the garage to dump things in.

Baby steps.

It’s now more than a year later and I’m still recycling. Not absolutely everything. Sometimes a few scraps of paper, or bits of plastic end up in the garbage. But I recycle most things. My 2020 New Year’s Resolution was a success.

I stuck with it because it was simple, and I didn’t obsess about doing it 100% of the time. Recycling more only required a minor shift in habits. I didn’t set out to drop 100 pounds and look like a swimsuit model. I didn’t go cold turkey on smoking or drinking. I didn’t make it a goal to travel around the world.

@Sigmund

Recycling more was easy. It felt like one of those early quests in a video game. “Kobolds are ravaging our pumpkin patch. Go kill 10 of them and bring me their candles.”

This year my New Year’s Resolution is to drink less. Not “never drink again” because I know that’s not realistic. I’m going to accomplish this by limiting myself to only buying $20 or less worth of alcohol whenever I buy alcohol.

So far this has been working.

In the past, I’d just load up whenever I hit the store. Our pantry would be full of booze. And it’s a lot easier to crack open a bottle of red when you only have to walk a few steps.

My family are big drinkers. They have wine with every meal. I tried to quit drinking a few times before, and it never works out. Eventually you have a terrible day and someone offers you a beer and poof you’re done. The next day you’re juggling beer cans on the roof and doing a swan dive into a swimming pool full of JELL-O shots.

Or something like that. So, I’m starting small with the alcohol, like I started small with the recycling.

Video games are designed in a way to help you improve. You start out with basic skills, and basic challenges. Over time your skills improve, and the challenges get tougher.

Setting a hard resolution for yourself is the same as skipping the first 20 levels and going straight to the final boss.

Sure, some people can do that. But most of us can’t. We’d just keep dying over and over again. Eventually we’d declare the game stupid and turn it off.

Sound familiar?

People abandon their New Year’s Resolutions because it makes them miserable. Resolutions usually involve exercising more (ugh) or giving up your favorite vices (double ugh).

Try this instead:

Rather than start yourself out with a final boss goal, start yourself out with something simple. Instead of saying, “I will get in great shape,” set a goal like, “I will walk at least 5,000 steps a day.”

If you have fitness tracker, 5,000 steps doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually above average. Most Americans don’t get more than 3,500 steps a day.

If you lead a sedentary life, then 5,000 steps a day is a good starter goal. This resolution will lead to a healthier life. It will make you a better person.

Especially since you won’t stop at 5,000. Fitness leads to more fitness. And since this is a starter goal, then after a few months you should ramp it up. Moving from 5,000 to 6,000 is easier. You might even jump up to 10,000 (the default goal on most fitness trackers).

Going from 3,000 to 10,000 would be difficult if you’ve been sedentary for the past few years. Your knees would hurt. Your ankles would hurt. Your skins would hurt.

Everything would hurt.

And you’d be more likely to give up.

Here are some of the most common New Year’s Eve resolutions. I’ve come up with alternate resolutions for you that are easier to keep. You can ease yourself into them.

Exercise more -> Get 6,000 steps per day during the work week.

Eat healthier -> Eat vegetarian once a week.

Lose weight -> Don’t eat anything after 9PM.

Learn a new skill -> Watch a YouTube video series to ease yourself into something new.

Spend less money -> Wait 24 hours before spending more than $100. (To make sure it’s not an impulse purchase.)

Quit smoking/drinking -> Reduce consumption by 25% to start.

Spend more time with family -> Call a family member at least once every two weeks.

Travel across the world -> Visit at least two unique locations in your own country.

Whatever your New Year’s Resolution is, you’ll find it easier if you start small and ease yourself into it. Simpler tasks are easier to accomplish, and the same applies to resolutions. Start small and build on it later.

There’s nothing saying you can’t modify your resolution halfway through the year if you’re doing great.

6,000 steps a day can turn into 9,000.

9,000 can turn into 15,000.

You can do it. I believe in you.