How to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolution While Celebrating Health, Wealth, & Good Memories to Come! – The new year always brings about hope for putting better habits to practice… We aim for goals to make more money, make our health a priority, or celebrate moments more! However, most times, we give up! Learn how to make some progress this year with your New Year’s Resolutions right here on Newsymom!

I’ll admit it: I’m terrible at keeping New Year’s resolutions.

I’ve had various resolutions over the years:

• Work out/exercise more
• Eat better
• Make more money
• Go on vacations or trips
• See my long-distance family more

And I’ve noticed that before having my daughter, I truly was immature in my thinking about this. I didn’t understand the commitment that it took to develop better habits. I always waited for the moment that something would click and it would just be something I wanted to do all the time… but here’s the issue with my thinking:

Having a new year’s resolution is about PRACTICING the habit until it becomes your lifestyle.

 

Think about it! You didn’t just become a good mama as soon as your baby came into the world. You probably sat there in disbelief, wondering how you were going to take care of this little person. You became overwhelmed when your little babes wouldn’t stop crying and felt terrible when you had to walk out of the room to cry it out yourself. You didn’t realize how much of your time and energy this little guy or gal took, so you felt even worse when you couldn’t get some household chores in (and a shower)!

How about now?

You’re rocking motherhood, aren’t you?! You know exactly why your babes is crying, and what triggers their crying! You know their nap times, their appointment schedules, and when you can sneak in that shower for yourself. You’ve got dinner pre-made to pop in the oven. You know exactly the support you need from your S.O., your parents, siblings, aunt… You know the importance of taking care of yourself as well!

Like motherhood, accomplishing a resolution takes practice, over and over again until you find the things that work best for you. We become better mothers everyday just by doing it!

The Best Way to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolution Is Ensuring It Fits in Your Life

I don’t like the word resolution because it sounds like it “resolves” something… It’s too immediate. Let’s get rid of the concept of New Year’s resolutions and call them what they are: goals. Each resolution we have is a goal, and we need to figure out a practical way to achieve it.

For instance, one of my goals for this year is to make more memories with my family, prioritizing family time over work. (In the semi-recent past, I’ve made myself too available for work-related things…leading to FOMO with my daughter as she grows up.)

Instead of making a ridiculous schedule that I know I won’t stick to, I’m allowing myself some more grace. Each month, I allot the tasks I must accomplish on a monthly calendar with the final due dates listed.

Why?

I know for a fact that I’m not giving myself grace when I pre-schedule out all the blocks of time I have for tasks. If I put myself down to write content from 9AM-2PM on that Tuesday, here’s what happens:

• I wake up at 9:35AM because I had a TERRIBLE time trying to sleep on our lumpy mattress the night before. (Note to self: Time to get a new mattress.)
• I’m starving and shouldn’t work without eating, so we go ahead and make breakfast, finishing up around 10:15 AM. (Already an hour and fifteen minutes behind…)
• I get to the computer and take a look at incoming emails which puts me behind another half hour.
• Finally, I make it to Google Docs and stare at the blinking cursor… I have no inspiration to write. I’ve got writer’s block. Plus, my back is cramping since I’m about to get my period. Just great.
• I plop on the couch and try to force myself to relax, trying to find a movie to zone out until inspiration can strike me again. (It doesn’t happen, just saying.)

See what I mean? It took years for me to figure out that in order to see some progress with my goals, I have to work it into an achievable habit!

Now that I’ve given myself more freedom in when to do my work, I do it when I feel inspired. I’ve spent less time overall working on projects and don’t worry about work when I’m spending time with my family.

So Here It Is: The Secret Sauce to Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

Let’s go back up to those resolutions I’ve had over the years, and I’ll share with you how I’ve been able to achieve progress with them:

• Work out/exercise more – I’m still trying to perfect this one, but here’s some of what I do to exercise more: I take walks to my mom’s house a couple blocks away instead of taking the car. I park my car a little farther away from the store’s entrance to get a little more walking in. I incorporate at-home exercise videos like Pilates or Yoga. I’m thinking of trying a kickboxing or dance class next!

• Eat better – This one is still in the making, but I’m proud to say I incorporate better foods from Fresh Thyme and the local farmer’s markets (when they’re in season)! My goal is to cut down on as many food items that have labels (because labels typically equal preservatives and other added chemicals). Bananas don’t need a label, just saying!

• Make more money – My husband and I have made more money just by realizing that money isn’t everything! We measure everything now in time. We don’t *sell* our time for anything less than the amount we know we deserve, and use that same logic while shopping. If meat costs the equivalent of four hours of our time, we know it’s not worth it! However, if you work and haven’t seen a raise, ask for one or switch roles! Costs are going up and you deserve to provide for your family without sacrificing more time than necessary.

• Go on vacations or trips – Though we don’t have any major trips currently set in stone, we went on our first mini-vacation last summer and had a blast visiting family! We pulled out the stops with a rental car, hotel stay, and set aside some money for souvenirs. We were able to relax for the first time in years, and my daughter couldn’t get enough of our little ‘cation! Next on our hit list: Disney World!

• See my long-distance family more

  – Our trip last year was the first of more family outings this year, as we were able to see them pretty regularly since then. We make more efforts to see our family that live an hour or more away. Each month, we also make plans for our immediate family unit to have fun: a Bob Evans breakfast date, family outing in the community, or sometimes just window shopping to lollygag!

To summarize, don’t be hard on yourself for not being able to “stick it out” for previous years of resolutions. Take smaller steps to see progress. Remember to spend this year continuing on your path towards good health, wealth, and celebrating memories with your loved ones! That’s what truly matters. <3

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Melissa Klatt is a Stark County mama, content & editorial writer, and the owner and certified event planner with MK Events. Follow more of her work to help moms on Newsymom (@newsymom) or MK Events (@mkeventsonline)!