The most exciting part of the New Year is the New Year’s resolutions, the exciting journeys we promise ourselves to embark on, and the pact we sign to get better as the year progresses. We are full of energy and excitement to achieve our goals and better our lives. Still, often after a mere week or two, it's easy to lose our spark. We return to our same old habits, feeling terrible because we did not complete the mountain of tasks we assigned ourselves.

As we enter 2025, the halfway point of the decade, this article discusses how you can stick to your New Year’s resolutions and achieve your goals realistically by taking one step at a time.

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Why Do We Fail to Stick to Our New Year’s Resolutions?

Firstly, let's consider a major reason why we don't end up sticking to our resolutions: perfectionism.

When starting to work on something new we tend to be very cautious and keen to ensure that everything we're doing is right. This can be demotivating. Everyone is bound to make mistakes when trying something new, so why should you feel bad about it? In truth, making mistakes is perfectly fine - the only thing that matters is not giving up.

The other reason for the lapse of our New Year’s resolutions is the lack of definition in our goals. The goals we set are often vague. For example, saying “I am going to work on my academics” or “I am going to exercise more often” are common New Year goals that lack definition.

When you say “I am going to work on my academics” there is no concrete plan to adhere to. We don’t know how we're going to tackle this goal which contains a broad spectrum of sub-elements that include, “What subjects am I going to work on?”, “How am I going to plan my study schedule?” and “How am I going to study more efficiently to get better?”. When we generalize our goal there will be no plan of action to begin with. This ends up demotivating us again.

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To overcome these problems, here are some simple steps you can take to stay consistent with your New Year's goals.

How to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions

When we talk about New Year resolutions, it's really about setting up new habits that help you achieve your goals. The complete guide to setting up new habits can be found in the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. However, if you have other commitments and are too short on time to read the whole book, here is the list of things I learned from the book that helped me establish new constructive habits.

Step 1: Break down your end goal into smaller achievable goals

As mentioned earlier, the lack of definition of our goals is what demotivates us. The simple fix to this problem is to break down your goals into smaller achievable goals. For example, if your goal is to improve your grades at school, make a plan to complete your syllabus for upcoming tests and further break it down.

You could plan to complete two to three lessons each week and break it down further to study for an hour every day. By doing this you have simplified your end goal which was to improve your grades to a simple task of studying for an hour every day. These smaller tasks are more achievable and offer a sense of accomplishment after completing them.

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Step 2: Gamify your goals

Everyone loves a good video game. It provides just the right amount of challenge to keep us hooked and rewards us for completing challenges by leveling us up. We can induce this video game set up into our real lives by using something called a habit scorecard.

You can make this scorecard in a small notebook and keep it with you every day to track your habits. If your goal is to exercise more often, put a tick mark in your habit scorecard each day you exercise and review it at the end of each week. This will give you a record of your consistency.

A physical representation of our habits tends to motivate us to pursue them. Every tick mark you put in your scorecard is similar to gaining XP points in a video game and leveling up. By using this simple approach you can make your New Year goals more interesting.

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Step 3: Redesign your environment

Your environment plays a huge role in shaping your habits. If your surroundings are more suited to your goals it will be much easier to achieve them.

If you want to practice the guitar, more often keeping it outside on a stand instead of tucking it away in a bag makes you likelier to play it. If you want to reduce your social media usage, setting up time limits and moving the icons to the hidden app section makes you less likely to use them. If you want to read more books, just keeping a book on your bedside makes you more likely to pick it up and read it. By making small alterations to your existing environment, you can fuel the creation of new habits.

Step 4: Reward yourself

The human brain loves rewards. Every action we perform throughout the day is directly or indirectly connected to receiving a reward. Therefore, we can create new habits for ourselves if we are rewarded for them. The brain releases a happy hormone called dopamine when it anticipates a reward for performing a task.

Every time you work towards your goals make sure to reward yourself. Using this reward system you can train your brain to do something you should, followed by doing something you enjoy.

By following these simple steps you can cultivate new habits in 2025 which align with your goals and help you achieve them more systematically.

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Conclusion

As we enter 2025 with newfound excitement and energy, defining our New Year’s resolutions can help us leave our comfort zones and achieve something meaningful. By following the simple steps highlighted in this article you can form habits that help you achieve your resolutions. Wishing all of you a happy and successful New Year!