How to make your New Year Resolutions last
Now when you all have welcomed the New Year as well as a New Decade, your New Year resolutions are waiting to be implemented. Various researches have shown that your fresh resolution become stale by the end of January and most of you lose interest in following them.
Eating better, daily exercise, and creating that emergency fund is a good idea; however, all of these lack the specificity and lack of clarity. You have to be specific with your resolution. For example, if you want to eat better you have to specify that you will include leafy vegetables in your daily intake, desserts only once a week, and you will totally refrain from fast food. Similarly, in case of emergency fund, you need to specify the exact amount. Let's say if you want to have Rs 5 lakh as your emergency fund by March, you must specify to make it happen. Just making intention will not help you much.
Make achievable resolutions
One of the primary reasons New Year resolutions die down early is because they are unattainable. For instance, you make a resolution of saving 40 per cent of your income, out of which, 50 per cent will be invested. However, your home loan EMI forms 50 per cent of your total income, which means you have to manage all other expenditures in 10 per cent. This looks next to impossible and, hence, will not be followed for long. Therefore, it is necessary to make resolutions that are achievable, such as savings 20 per cent of your income.
Allow yourself to fail
It is not easy to change habits at once and that is why you will find it hard to follow New Year resolutions, initially. Allow yourself to slip, only to strengthen your efforts through a combination of guilt and increasing awareness of the problem's severity. For example, if you have planned to set aside Rs 5,000 for your child’s education and fail to do it in February, try to cover up that in the month of March but do not abandon it. What is important is that you fulfil your resolution.
Make it Public
If you are one of those lucky persons who are surrounded by a loving family and supportive friends, make your goal public and ask for accountability. It will help you to follow your resolutions.