Resolution Solutions: Strategies for Personal Growth, and Some Artistic Expression, Too!

New Year's Resolutions.  

Why do we make them?

Researchers believe it's due to something called the "Fresh Start Effect."  Major landmarks--like the start of a new year--trigger a desire in us to start over, to do better, to make goals and plans.

 But how effective are they?

Actually, the figures aren't as dismal as you might think.  In fact, 87% of Americans keep at least some of them.  But only 6% achieve that ever-elusive goal of keeping all of them.  

The reasons are likely complex, but there are plenty of articles out there outlining how to keep your resolutions successfully, which may give us a clue as to why so many fail.

This article from VeryWellMind, for example, gives 10 tips for succeeding.  If we look at the inverse of each tip, we can get a pretty good idea of what NOT to do if we really want to achieve Resolution Victory!

1. Choose a specific goal.  Instead of "I'm going to lose weight," say "I'm going to lose 10 pounds."
2. Limit your resolutions.  Instead of "I'm going to lose weight and learn to knit and get a new job and redecorate my house and travel to India and exercise for an hour every day and grow a garden and...  Too many goals start to feel overwhelming.  Stick to one or two.
3. Plan, plan, plan. Instead of just taking to the highway and getting lost along the way, create for yourself a roadmap of how you're going to achieve your goal.  Make it as detailed and possible and write it down.
4. Take baby steps.  Start slow.  Remember that 10 pounds you want to lose?  It's super tough to succeed if you make sudden and radical changes to your diet and activity habits. If you had steak for New Year's dinner but decide on January 1st you're going to be a vegan, or if you're a professional couch potato and figure a daily hour of pilates is definitely do-able, think again.  Start by changing a few things to your diet to make it healthier.  Whole wheat bread instead of white.  Cut soda consumption in half and drink water instead.  Add a simple exercise plan, like an energetic 20 minute walk every day, or take the stairs instead of the elevator.  As you achieve success with those first steps, add others.
5. Avoid repeating past failures.  If you've made the same resolution for ten years straight with no success, make a different resolution this year.  Preferably something COMPLETELY different.
6. Give yourself the grace of time.  If you expect to go cold turkey on whatever bad habit you intend to kick in 2026, you might be disappointed in the results.  Be patient with yourself.  Sometimes it takes just as much time to kick an undesirable habit as it took to get stuck in it.  Achieving your resolution is process, not an event.
7. Surround yourself with cheerleaders.  Are you independent-minded like me?  Try exercising a little bit of vulnerability and ask someone to be your support network or your advocate.  It really does help!  
8. Take opportunities to remotivate yourself.  Don't give up when the going gets a little tough.  Put a reminder in your phone to go over that written plan once a month and remind yourself of reasons you set the goal in the first place.
9. Keep at it.  Don't let yourself give up.  Track your progress, even your disappointments.  Progress is a bumpy road with hills and valley, moments of success and moments of failure.  It's not a smooth upward slope.  
10. Be flexible.  If the plan has to change, that's normal.  If the goal takes a bit longer than you expect, that's normal, too.  Shrug off the disappointment and keep moving forward.  Bumps in the road are a feature, not a bug.  

Personally, I think one of the best resolutions we can make is to take a little more time for ourselves.  Life gets crazy and hectic and stressful.  Learn to chill.

Try coloring.  It's relaxing, mind-focusing, and brain-stimulating.  

I recommend these ArtisticChaosInk products for a well mind:

ELEPHANT POSTER   There's something stoic and calming about an elephant, don't you think?

TRY A REVERSE COLORING POSTER!  Have a tough time staying in the lines?  Well, MAKE the lines instead.  This poster has all the coloring done.  All you have to do is simple outlining.  

MENTAL WELLNESS  This poster is all about affirmation and uplifting messages.