How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

Do you struggle to keep your New Year’s resolutions? If you’re 50 plus, you’ve probably seen your fair share of resolutions come and go without the results you wanted to achieve. More than likely, the excitement of starting a New Year – and right now, a new decade – can wane and leave you back in your old routines wondering how to make turn your resolutions into reality. But you can be the exception to this trend. Here’s how to get started:

Set Achievable and Clear Goals

Strive for making your goals achievable so you don’t set yourself up for future failure. For example, let’s say your goal is to lose weight or get rid of some ongoing mid life crisis symptoms. Determine where you stand currently, and then give yourself a goal that can be achieved following the 1-2 pounds per week guideline.

You’ll also benefit from making clear goals. Rather than saying that you want to be thinner, say how many pounds you’d like to lose. Then define the “how” as well. Are you going to follow a specific diet? How are you going to cut calories? Are you going to start a moderate exercise routine? How often?

With a clear, achievable goal and a set plan of tasks you know you can complete, you virtually guarantee your success! You know exactly what you want and how you’re going to get there. All you need to do now is take action.

Take Action

Taking action is usually where people tend to run into some trouble. It’s easy to get pumped up about an idea, but when it comes down to executing your plan, you might be tempted to fall short.

In this situation, you only need to muster up the energy to start. Tell yourself that you’re going to stick to your new plan for one week and then evaluate how it went. On the other hand, if you take everything in all at once, you’ll be less likely to begin in the first place. If it looks overwhelming, just focus on the short term.

Form a Routine

The reason you want to take baby steps at first is because once you form a new routine, it’s actually easy to hold yourself to it. Some say that it takes as little as two weeks to get a new routine engrained in your brain.

For example, in the weight loss scenario, starting an exercise routine can be especially grueling if you’re out of shape. The first two days can leave you tired, sore, and weak. That doesn’t sound like fun at all! However, those first two days are the worst you’ll endure. After your routine is built, you may find that you look forward to your exercise sessions.

Reward Yourself

Reward yourself often for your excellent efforts because you deserve it for working hard to change yourself for the better. You don’t need to wait until the end of the year to treat yourself.

Break up your goals into smaller pieces and every time you achieve a milestone, give yourself something that you enjoy. It could be an item you’ve been wanting or maybe a night out on the town.

Rewarding yourself for a job well done motivates you to keep going!

Rinse and Repeat

After your first successful year of bettering yourself through New Year’s resolutions, you can then repeat the process and work on another aspect of your life where you want to see change. Before you know it, you’ll be a perfectly happy and healthy person because of your awareness, perseverance, and hard work!

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50 Plus Woman Masquerades As Zany Christmas Elf

In a minute you can watch my zany Christmas elf video below but first let me explain why a 50 plus woman would do something so – well crazy. Right? Here’s how I look at it. For so many years, the holidays had a predictable ring to them. Tradition. Get the tree up, buy presents, pull out the favorite recipes and go all out prepping for the BIG day – Christmas. If you celebrate this holiday and you’re over 50, this may all sound pretty familiar.

But then the passage of time throws a monkey wrench into these time-honored plans. You may not feel like putting up the tree – so much effort for a couple of weeks. And then the kids, now grown, announce that they’re going out of town for the holidays. You smile and say “how nice” when you really feel sort of crappy inside. Add to that, a parent who is now gone or one who has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t quite know who you are. Frankly as you get further into 50-something, there are times when it hard to find, let alone sustain the holiday spirit.

As these mid life crisis symptoms hit me this year, I decided to turn on the humor and lighten up a little. I watched my favorite holiday movie The Christmas Story and decided to create a funny little video to make me laugh as much as anyone else. So watch the video, dance a little and remember that this just might bring a smile to your face and your heart when you need it the most.

Merry Christmas!

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