Six Tips To Help You Reboot Your Failed New Year’s Resolutions

This post is presented in partnership with the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC).

January 17 marked ‘Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day’, which is when, statistically, most people have crumbled in the face of their New Year’s pledge.

Fact is, studies have shown only about eight per cent of people are actually successful in making good on their NYE resolutions each year. (For those who resolved to get better at understanding statistics this year but have already given up, just trust us that eight per cent is a pretty bad result.)

It doesn’t have to be that way! There are indeed ways to reach December 31 with your resolutions firmly intact. Here are six tips to help you make it to the finish line.

1. Make yourself accountable.

It’s one thing to say, “Oh, yeah, I should probably take up journaling” and another thing entirely to devote yourself to the act. A surefire way of sticking to your resolution is by making yourself accountable, ideally with some real – but still safe and not at all silly – consequences put in place should you fail to do so.

By accepting the ramifications for not meeting your goals – or, at the very least, for not trying to meet your goals – you’re already more likely to work harder at them. Of course, it’s easier to make yourself accountable to someone else. For that, you’ll need a little help from your friends.

2. Give your friends control.

Instituting some consequences might require giving someone you trust the power to put them into place. For instance, you might give your bestie access to your private poetry and tell them that, if you don’t keep up a regular journal throughout 2016, they’re allowed to share your embarrassing art on their Facebook feed.

The Goalzie app, from the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), actually relies entirely on this kind of agreement and was co-designed with 65 young Australians in a series of face-to-face workshops and online discussions. You can get your friends to ‘challenge’ you to certain goals (like, finally write a resume, put all your pocket money into savings or meditate for ten minutes every day) and then choose the consequence to go with it. Those consequences include writing 200 words on why the sky is blue, liking every one of Justin Bieber’s Facebook posts from the past month and, most gravely, being forced to use ‘yolo’ and ‘swag’ seriously for a week. You wouldn’t dare pike on the resolution with those punishments dangling above your head.

3. Stagger your resolutions.

There’s no reason to force yourself to take on a bunch of massive resolutions all at once. Just as in the Goalzie app, you can stagger your goals throughout the year. For instance, maybe you want to cut out cool drink and coffee? Spend the first quarter of 2016 working towards drinking one litre of water a day. If you increase that goal incrementally over the next few months, by December, water might be the only thing you drink. It’s certainly smarter than going cold turkey.

4. Pick reasonable goals.

Think long term. It might not be realistic to, say, give up sugar entirely over the course of one year. Some may even say that’s unlikely over the course of one lifetime.

However, if you aim to cut down a certain percentage of your sugar intake over 2016, you can spend the next few years improving on that figure until you’re entirely sugar free, just like a delicious Zucchini fritter.

5. Don’t make excuses.

We’re not saying you should necessarily torture yourself, but if you made a commitment on January 1 to only have ice cream one night per week, really think twice before you grab that second bowl.

Again, making yourself accountable certainly helps in that regard. Even better, put some power in your friends’ hands. They might not let you off the hook so easily.

6. Use technology. (It’s built to make your life better.)

Apps like Goalzie are able to assist you in achieving your goals. However, even simply maintaining an online blog (or perhaps just regularly updating your Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr) allows your friends and family to follow along and help you to feel as if you’re not going it alone.

Good luck out there. Oh, and remember:

You can find out much more about the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre's (CRC) Goalzie app at www.goalzie.com.au. Or, download it from the iTunes store now for free. It is also free to download from the Google Play store.