New year, new me?: How to set achievable health goals in the upcoming year

After December 31, it seems nearly impossible to escape the chatter about resolutions for the new year. The gyms are teeming with new attendees and every magazine seems to be boasting about a new miracle diet. While it’s great that people are beginning to prioritize their health and wellbeing, many times these New Year’s resolutions are forgotten or given up on. A frequently cited study, published in 1989 in the Journal of Substance Abuse, followed 200 people and found that only 43% of people stuck with their goals for three months. The grim reality is that altering behaviors and habits is uncomfortable and challenging. Luckily, these statistics do not have to predict the results of your journey. Employing several goal-setting techniques in your plans will exponentially increase your probability of success. 

Focus on one specific goal at a time. 

Have you ever looked at a long list of school or work assignments and felt completely overwhelmed? Most of us have probably been in a situation like this at some point. There’s just so much to do that it feels impossible to muster the motivation to make it happen. The same case can occur when we try to achieve all of our health or fitness aspirations at once. Instead, pinpoint something very specific that you would like to accomplish or work on. For example, replace “I want to get better at running” with “I want to be able to run a 10k at the end of the year.” Once you’ve established that you can reliably follow through with your resolution, it’s safe to consider including other pursuits. 

Set realistic and measurable resolutions. 

To prevent frustration from overworking yourself, create a goal that is practical for you. Forming such a goal does not mean that it has to be unambitious or lackluster, instead, it should be something that through research and self-reflection you find doable. Constructing a series of advancing steps and logging progress through pictures or journaling can also be motivational. 

It’s not “all or nothing.” 

Health journeys are never linear. Life just happens and sometimes we fail. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes or taking a break from your original plans, the importance lies in how we deal and react to our setbacks. Making small, consistent steps toward your goal is what matters the most. Doing something, no matter how inconsequential it may seem, will always be better than giving up. 

By Nicole Hardt