Everyday Canvas

Keeping to New Year's Resolutions & Promises to Ourselves

Prompt: What is your formula of sticking to New Year's resolutions or any other promises to yourself, after making them?

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My sticking-to-promises-made-to-self always involves writing. I write long lists of what to do for each day either from the night before or early in the morning. On purpose, I make long lists, a lot more than I can chew. If I can do, in a day, half of what I wrote, then I am good. If I can accomplish more than half, hurrah! But sometimes, life happens and I fall under the middle of the list. I still give a pat on my own back and say to myself, “You tried, at least!” And I go on.

Long-term promises and resolutions I usually stay away from, but if I have to make them, I write in my private journal an essay-long piece on why and how I should keep to those. Most of the time, this works, too.

As to other ideas, American Psychological Association’s tips on sticking with resolutions involve these points:

• Start small
• Change one behavior at a time
• Talk about it
• Don’t beat yourself up
• Ask for support

I also came across an article on the web a while ago, which gave pointers on the same issue. (Sorry, I just don’t remember the link, although I have copied and pasted the article in a word file.)

It said:
• First don’t bite more than you can chew. (So unlike me!)
• Start on a Monday as it is the most popular day for starting.
(I can’t wait for a Monday or any other day. If I want to do something, I have to start it NOW!)
• Don’t just wing it. Plan for it.
• Do not have a plan B.
(So unlike me again. I always have a plan B. Where would I be without plan Bs? All my life is a plan B.)
• Pick a round number.
(The article said marathon runners usually finished around round numbers. I wouldn’t know about this. I never ran a marathon, and it isn’t likely I’ll run one in this lifetime, either. )
• Put cash on the line.
To lose weight, when people didn’t meet their goal, they were fined, and this worked. (This wouldn’t work for me either. If somebody would fine me, I’d run out of that place like a wind gust passing through. This is probably what happened to some who started on that program, and because they dropped out, they weren’t counted at all. Thus the success of the program.)
• Chop it up.
(Translated to our writerly minds, this would be: Instead of saying “I’ll write 36 stories this year,” say "three stories a month.”)
• Conserve your willpower.
Every time you have to use your willpower, you’ll have less to resist other temptations. In other words, willpower is finite. Use it wisely and sparingly. (I do force my willpower to bend to my needs. It sometimes works but leaves me drained, too.)

So there! Best wishes with your New Year’s resolutions and other promises you make to yourselves.
May all our successes and also failures prove to be the best things we do for ourselves!