New Year’s Resolutions? Chances are you won’t keep your New Year’s Resolution, and below I will tell you why.

Let’s be real here for a minute and figure out how do I know you won’t keep your New Year’s Resolution this year?

You know, I am not an expert on these things, but I will be hitting a milestone birthday this year, and I think this has made me an expert to the most common New Year’s Resolutions you won’t keep!

8 New Year's Resolutions You Won't Keep

Starting this year, I will:

Diet, DIET, diet like I never dieted before!

At the end of every year, I say this to myself as I stuffed my face with delicious holiday cookies and ate like the end of the world is coming because I know that once that clock hits midnight, January 1^st it’s over for me!

This mama is going on a diet, and this time, I mean it! I MEAN IT!

The problem is that I get bored with it. I’m going to change the way I have been eating almost my entire adult life, just like that.

The truth is that diets don’t work.

What is going to work for me is to change my entire eating habit and my mentality about food. This is not going to happen in one day, but taking baby steps and setting up smaller goals will help me get there.

Quit Smoking!

OK, you have to quit smoking; it’s not healthy and is detrimental to your health. You already know this, and I’m sure you want to stop.

But let’s be real here for a minute; you spent New Year’s Eve partying and smoking, and once it strikes midnight, you just decide you are done with an addiction?

It doesn’t work like that, and it is very likely that by January 3^rd, you will be ready to kill someone!

To help you quit smoking and keep you out of jail, you need to plan it and use resources that work for you.

Here is a great site to start to help you quit that smoking habit! SmokeFree.Gov

Spend more time with your family!

Well, depending what you have been doing for years, if you haven’t spent any time with your family, I don’t know what you have been doing.

OK, I get it! You want to take this year to spend more quality time with your family.

Depending on your family and situation, making MORE time when you have a job or other obligations can make this difficult.

What do you consider making more time? Do you want to travel more to see them? Do you want to give up time for something else to spend time with them?

Learning something new

When did you stop learning? Why are we making New Year’s Resolutions? If we decided to learn something new as a resolution each year, why are we making New Year’s Resolutions?

I’m just going to leave it at that and make you think about that.

Do volunteer work

During the holiday, we get into the giving spirit and start thinking of helping others and volunteering. The truth is that you need to do more research as to what kind of volunteer work you want to do and what it takes.

Are you willing to spend the time and effort to help the organization you decide to help? If you made your New Year’s resolution that you wanted to spend more time with your family, why are you adding this one to your list if you don’t have the time?

If you want to help others, do random kinds of kindness here and there. Donate to your favorite charity; start there and see if volunteering is the thing you want to do!

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Travel somewhere exotic!

This is why, for some of you, this New Year’s resolution won’t work: if you are impatient, never had a passport, never traveled anywhere, and have no money; this traveling to an exotic place is not going to happen and is unrealistic.

Nothing against you, but to travel you have to have:

Money
Patience
Time

If you have none of the above, don’t even bother making this your New Year’s Resolution for this year. Instead, make planning part of your New Year’s resolution instead and take time this New Year to do research and start planning, budgeting, and saving!

Lower your stress level this year!

When you find the magic solution to this resolution, can you tell me? I want to know how I can keep my stress level lower this year … that’s all I’m going to say about that one.

Drink less alcohol!

Are you ready to give up holiday drinking, happy hour, partying this year? This one can be as difficult as quitting smoking and can be near impossible to do alone and suddenly.

Why won’t you keep these New Year’s Resolutions?

The reason some of us don’t keep some of these New Year’s Resolutions is that we get bored, we hate them, we didn’t plan them out.

We aren’t ready to change our behavior!

Some of our New Year’s Resolutions require us to change our kind of thinking; we have to rewire our brains, and this takes time and steps. So how can we achieve our New Year’s resolution successfully?

Focus on one resolution

OK, I admit that I tend to make more than one New Year’s Resolution; and honestly, after having a few drinks, I add more to it. The truth is that I hate calling them resolutions and focus on goals instead.

Don’t make your New Year’s Resolution on New Year’s Eve

OK, so maybe creating resolutions the day before New Year’s, and perhaps having a few drinks, is not a good idea. Instead, take time to plan your resolution and create a goal in advance.

Grab the free goal planner by clicking the image.

Don’t do it alone

If losing a few pounds is your goal for the year, then get yourself an accountability partner or buddy to do it with you! Having someone else to help you and hold you accountable will help you stay focused and increase your odds of following through.

Get motivated and get committed

Do whatever it takes to get motivated and get committed! You want to make sure that this New Year’s resolution means something to you. One of my New Year’s goals is to lose 20 lbs, and honestly, I am not looking forward to it. This means that my enthusiasm about this is very low.

But I have committed and getting pretty excited about this goal because I have planned weekly motivations to help me get going.

Make sure the timing is right

Last year, there was no way I was going to lose 20lbs because I was pregnant. The timing was just wrong, and I wasn’t even thinking of making this one of my yearly goals.

The truth is that after the holidays, a sense of reality shows up in January; and sometimes we realize that our New Year’s resolutions are going to be hard to do, or just isn’t going to work this year.

Screw New Year’s Resolutions

Listen, if resolutions are stressing you out, then forget about them. Start creating smaller goals and achieving them rather than feeling like a big failure because you couldn’t commit to your New Year’s resolution.

Instead, make this resolution:

You are going to live 2018 to the freaking fullest!

8 New Year’s Resolutions You Won’t Keep