Stick To Your New Year’s Resolutions For The Rest of 2021 With These Tips

And just like that, 2021 is halfway over. If you’re anything like me, you thought you’d take the year by storm. We were hopeful that the pandemic would come to an end so we could focus on ourselves. A lot of us reflected those ambitions into our New Year’s resolutions, and while those goals were amazing, many of us (myself included) haven’t stuck with our resolutions. Now, the year has hit its halfway mark.

Isn’t this what always happens? We greet the new year with hope that comes in the form of lofty and sometimes unachievable goals and leave our June selves to realize how silly we were. 

So, here we are, halfway through 2021. But just because your January self was a little more enthusiastic than your June self doesn’t mean that you should give up on those goals. You set them for a reason, and you shouldn’t abandon those goals by the side of the road.

Maybe the goals we set at the beginning of the year won’t be conquered per se, but they can still be saved. If you’re like me and über competitive with yourself or with others, give yourself a break. When I get burnt out from my goals and ambitions, it’s a wakeup call that I’ve put too much pressure on myself. I would love to read 100 books this year, create a zero-waste lifestyle, and fill out all my circles on my Apple Watch every day. But I also have a full-time job, my favorite snack comes in a Lay’s plastic chip bag, and I like to sleep more than I like to sweat sometimes. 

That being said, a mid-year check-in might be just what we all need right now. So grab that list of aspirations and resolutions and settle in for some suggestions to finish the year on a strong note.

Add Instead of Subtract

Health.com has a wonderful article about why people’s New Year’s resolutions don’t always work out. People focus on the negative when they make their resolutions — whether they want to spend less time looking on their phone, eat less junk food, or spend less money, they want less. You need to add in something positive to replace the negative. 

If you want to eliminate things like eating junk food or spending too much time on your phone, you need to replace those negative tasks with positive reinforcements. One option would be to make conscious efforts to buy only healthy foods, or delete the apps that you find yourself scrolling on for hours a day.

You might try to add small positive habits into your everyday life. If you catch yourself going on your phone too often, you can try to replace social media apps with fitness apps. I found a really fun and non-guilt-inducing running app called Zombies, Run! that trains you for runs you want to take. The twist? You’re running from zombies. You can also replace social media apps with others like Headspace or Calm. That way, you can practice being more mindful and present. 

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

Think about why you want to achieve these resolutions. If you map out and define your “why,” it’ll be easier to keep your resolutions. This also eliminates keeping meaningless resolutions. I want to achieve so much, but if I focus on the resolutions that will actually help me reach who I want to be at the end of the year, I have a lot less tasks to work on, and my goal is once again achievable.

Your resolutions will also serve you better this way. I know that we would all love to come out of 2021 as completely new and improved versions of ourselves, but that is unrealistic. Eat the elephant one bite at a time and choose one or two things you’d really like to focus on for the next half of this year. Then, focus all of your energy on that improvement. Focusing on that end goal will also allow you to make huge leaps towards that resolution, rather than focusing on a little bit of every goal you made in January.

Eliminate the Root of the Problem

Like Health’s article says, we often try to eliminate the negative things we do in our resolutions. But have you ever stopped and wondered why you do those things? I eat chocolate when I write for long periods of time because I know I have to eat, but I don’t have time to actually make a good and healthy meal that will satisfy me. Hence, chocolate — and lots of it. 

If you want to change your behavior, look at why you’re doing certain things and try to change the root of the problem. If I know I’m going to be working hard for a week, I make healthy snacks and meal prep dinners so I don’t just eat like I’m an 18-year-old boy in college that week. I also try to plan my week so I don’t get overwhelmed and can tackle only what I need to do each day.

Make Your Goals Measurable

I like to measure my life in numbers: I want to read 100 books a year, I want to move my bedtime up an hour and wake up an hour earlier, I want to learn one new language. Once you have that quantifiable goal set, you can move on to actually achieving it. If you can measure your goal, you’ll most likely get to it. This is when the brain starts to categorize the numbers. Maybe lessen the goal and then divide it into the weeks left. We’re halfway through the year, so maybe try to read one book a month instead of two. Break down your goals into achievable bites instead of huge looming hopes. 

So many people want to “be better” by the end of the year, but they have no real way of quantifying that. I would suggest starting out small. Try to add a small habit of doing something for just 15 minutes a day into your routine.

Don’t Be Afraid to Start Over

If your goals aren’t working for you or they’re really just stressing you out, scrap them. Your goals are supposed to make you feel better. If they’re hurting you mentally, eliminate them from your mind. You’re busy and stressed enough without having to adhere to a resolution that isn’t serving you. 

So many of us are competitive with ourselves — we want to reach our goals and be the best we can be. We can’t do that if our goals are stressing us out, and we only want to accomplish them to say we did it. I feel this with my Apple Watch sometimes — it resets my rings and activity goals every day. While I love being active, I have had to take it off and choose not to complete my goals for the day a number of times because I would be doing it for the satisfaction of my Watch — not for me. Make sure the goals you’re trying to reach are helping you and promoting health and wellbeing, not stress and insecurity.

I’m not suggesting that you leave all your resolutions at the door either, just quantify them. Decide which ones you really want to focus on for the rest of the year, and which ones aren’t going to benefit you. Marie Kondo those resolutions!

Celebrate What You Have Done

Like I’ve said before: We’re six months through the year. While you might not be on top of all your resolutions, I’m sure you have at least started on them. Again, January you was around for at least 31 days. Celebrate all the things you have done. We get so burnt out because we don’t appreciate how far we’ve come. It’s hard for us to see the growth, but it’s there. If we weren’t constantly growing, we wouldn’t really exist. So take a minute and acknowledge how far you’ve come. 

You can also celebrate the happy moments that you’ve had this year. These don’t necessarily have to be the things you’ve done or accomplished, but the beautiful moments you’ve witnessed. It’s important to remember the happy times that you were a part of instead of those that you created. Let good things happen to you and cherish those times!

There’s an App for That

When all else fails, get an app that will help you achieve those goals. Here are some of our suggestions: 

Fabulous

This may be the coolest app I have ever seen. You can choose when to wake up, when to go to sleep, how much sleep you want, what you want to focus on improving, and everything in between. The app will give you challenges and schedule out hours or days. There is a 5-Day Love Yourself Challenge that includes writing out positive self-affirmations and cooking yourself a nice meal. There are also tools to build better routines. At the very beginning of the app, you can tell it what you want to improve upon, and it will structure challenges to help you achieve that goal. 

Aloe Bud

This app is a bit different than most tracking apps. You can pick and choose what goals and habits you would like to start practicing, and then log them when you complete them. I actually really like all the options and icons that the app lets you explore. You can either check in (meaning you did the task) or reflect on it.

Strides

What the other apps have in beauty, Strides makes up for in functionality. This is a goal and habit tracker through and through. You’ll get reminders on your phone to finish streaks and keep up the good work. You can also choose the frequency at which you’d like to complete/track your goals (how many times a week, how much weight lost, how much sleep slept).

Reset and Reframe

In the end, resolutions aren’t meant to stress you out or add pressure to your already stressful life. They’re there to make you slightly better every day by hopefully forming habits that will strengthen the you that you want to be, and allow growth to happen the way you want it to. 

Hopefully this is a good way for you to reset and reframe your resolutions at this point in the year, and maybe get some inspiration for starting out strong next year. 

Have you kept up with your resolutions? How are your goals going? Comment below!

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