Handling New Year’s Resolutions with Self-Compassion and Common Sense

One of the most well-liked customs of the Christmas season is setting goals for the New Year.

Although the custom is supposed to inspire people to adopt healthier behaviors, it causes worry for a lot of people. Nearly 85% of respondents claimed to be “confident” in keeping their resolutions last year, despite the stress; by February, just 22% of them had managed to follow through.

New Year’s resolutions are hard, stressful, and unrealistic, and they usually cause more harm than good. So how can we make sure we’re aiming for healthy, attainable, and realistic goals that won’t cause us stress?

The following five suggestions can help you stay away from the usual tension that comes with making resolutions for the new year:

Ignore the resolution custom entirely:

At times, people tell everyone that “this is our year” and place a lot of pressure on ourselves to become our “best selves.” While it’s admirable to aspire to greater and greater things, most of the time we just need and deserve a little grace.

A yoga instructor said that making no resolutions is just as beneficial as making them. “You will be a good person in it, there will be joy in it, and you deserve your own love in it,” the statement went on.

Even if people put on or take off weight, grow or trim our hair, or neglect to work out on a daily basis, people still deserve to live happy, contented lives.

Put an end to using your “failed” New Year’s

resolutions as a cause for discontent.
The majority of individuals let themselves down every year (generally by February), with only 9% of people really achieving their New Year’s resolutions.

People frequently make resolutions, bad habits, and unrealistic goals that don’t match with our way of life. To accomplish these goals, we attempt to alter every aspect of our everyday life, often causing harm to ourselves in the process. Rather, strive to position yourself for success by establishing attainable objectives for the entire year.

Pursue your objectives because you value yourself, not because you anticipate increasing your self-love after achieving them.

Everyone desire routines that help us love who we are, which is the motivation behind practically every New Year’s resolution, be it saving for a cosmetic operation, reducing weight, or reading in a coffee shop.

People establish goals for our intelligence or physical attractiveness, not so much to take care of and enjoy our current selves, but so that someday we would feel more at ease in our own flesh.

Set objectives or create strategies that will encourage you to value your “now self” rather than putting pressure on yourself and letting the world know that “we’re not good enough” right now. Instead of wasting more time wishing you were someone else, you can learn to appreciate yourself even if you fail to meet your objectives or fall behind on your New Year’s commitment.

Make the most of your errors and blunders as inspiration to correct course

Remind yourself that it’s acceptable to fail at your New Year’s resolutions, or use them as a wake-up call that the objective was unhealthy from the start. We allow ourselves the grace to be human when we accept our failures.

It’s acceptable—in fact, common and appropriate—for us to fall short of our objectives. But the issue with these resolves is that they stem from our self-loathing, which makes us always hold ourselves responsible for our mistakes.