There’s more than one day a year you’re allowed to make personal changes, you know.
1) Aim high, but be realistic.
Believe or not, aiming high and being realistic are not mutually exclusive. It’s OK to set high goals for yourself, but it’s not okay to tear yourself down when you fall short.
Reevaluate your New Year’s resolutions and make sure that they are reasonable and suitable for your busy lifestyle. Seven days might be a bit out of reach (and soul-crushing when you inevitably miss two days in a row…), but every other day is more workable. Work that gCal.
The same goes for intensive goals like writing every day, or finishing a book for leisure every week. Missing one day doesn’t doom you for the rest. All I’m saying is, if the only entries you have in your “daily” journal are from Jan. 1 and 2, today is as good a day as any to pick it right back up.
2) Learn your energizers and your tantalizers
If putting that Beyoncé poster up was supposed to motivate you to work on your bod, but all it’s done for you so far is make you feel worse about yourself: TAKE. IT. DOWN.
It’s important to distinguish what motivates you from what it just plain toxic. Having a reminder of an end goal might be helpful for some people, but for others, disheartening when it can often seem so far out of reach. We all find motivation from different sources, so don’t be afraid to mix it up and figure out what works for you.
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3) Work with what you’ve got.
New Year’s resolutions are a way—admittedly, a slightly contrived way—to make improvements: to make our lives in the next year a little bit happier and a little bit healthier. But remember, you’re making improvements on the person you are, not starting from scratch with a whole different gene pool.
Many people can’t keep their goals past the first weeks of the year because they’ve set themselves up for failure.
How odd—your resolution to become a 7am jogger isn’t working out for you? When your blankets have you conveniently swaddled into the likes of a breakfast burrito, you may be slightly disinclined to leave that warmth for a cold, cruel pre-class workout. (Most of us are!)
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So give your abused snooze button a break and be willing to accept that your workout will just have to come at time that doesn’t require a self-inflicted, ruthless extraction from your precious slumber. There’s no shame in not being a morning person. Just know yourself enough to work around it.
Hitting the gym in between classes, or heading to Yates to break a late night sweat might be your best way to unwind and get healthy. Best of all, finding the off-peak times that work for you mean no line for the treadmills and a pool lane all to yourself! So enjoy your sleep, and figure out what else works for you.
4) Be specific.
Making a resolution to “eat better” or “curse less” gives you no measurement of progress—or lack thereof. Whatever your resolution was as of January 1st, revamp it now by making sure you know the rules.
Whatever plan works for you, lay it out (in detail), and give it a go. Maybe it means swapping out your morning bowl of Captain Crunch for a healthy serving of oatmeal. If Captain Crunch is a vice you can’t part with, make your changes in another department. But the key is to define it. That way, you can easily keep tabs on days you kept with it, and days you caved or wish you had done better.
The same goes for cursing less. Give yourself a limit. Practice a conscience effort of three or four slip-ups a day, and gradually reduce that the easier and more effortless it gets. If you have one friend that really brings out the sailor in you, make her the exception and not the excuse. For even greater motivation, pay her some predetermined sum every time you slip up with her (as long as she/he won’t provoke you to madness)…
Bringing a level of awareness to your speech now will save you from an embarrassing slip up in an interview later. You’d hate to graduate with a dearth of vocabulary, and a realization that all you know how to effectively communicate is your, like, random shit.
5) Make lists (and stick to them).
This is particularly important if the resolution you’ve been slacking on has to do with diet and/or spending.
Here’s the trick: when you go out shopping—whether it’s for your mom’s birthday present or your week’s groceries—make a list of the things you need from the outside world and only allow yourself to get the things on that list.
You know what you’re probably not going to write on that list? The Hostess cupcakes you will inevitably find on sale at Safeway, or that fierce pair of heels you’ll see in the window on M. Keeping your head down and eyes peeled for list-items only is a clearcut way to save yourself from yourself.
The key is enforcement. Don’t even think about trying to “justify” extra purchases. It will keep your wallet happy and your pantry void of temptation. And you and I both know you were never going to wear those heels anyway…
6) Be kind to yourself.
For some of us, self-talk can be the best cheerleader. For others, we become our own worst enemy when our inner voice turns mean.
Knowing what works for you is half the battle. Don’t be the bully standing in your own way to success. And always remember to praise yourself for what you have done, rather than dwell on what you haven’t.
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Holly DiClemente (COL ’15) should probably start taking her own advice.
