It's the New Year's tradition as big as the ball drop, champagne, or Auld Lang Syne---resolutions. Every year, millions of people resolve to change their lives in the new year, whether it's going to the gym, finishing more books, quitting a bad habit, finally starting a project, or just taking off those extra pounds gained over the holidays. But few of those grand ideas actually stick. In fact, a study last year by U.S. News and World Report showed about 80 percent of New Year's resolutions fail by February.
So while anyone can make resolutions, the hard part is keeping them. Abby Juan, motivational teacher and author of How Me Found I: Mastering the Art of Pivoting Gracefully Through Life, tells KTRH resolutions need to go deeper than casual desires. "When you are actually serious about changing your life, there are steps that you have to commit to," she says. The first step is finding resolutions that are more meaningful to you. "When you're looking at next year, what is it that you really, really deeply desire...what is it that you want to let go, or get unstuck from," she asks.
Once you've found something that is very meaningful and important to you, stay focused on that one thing rather than trying to achieve multiple resolutions. "When you really believe that you're going to do it and you make a commitment to do it, then it becomes more than a New Year's resolution," says Juan. "You've put your stake in the ground, and you've said I'm going to do this, and that carries an energetic power."
Overall, Juan believes and teaches that if you want something badly enough and stay focused on it, you will eventually find a way to achieve it. "You've got to kind of know what you want, but you don't need to worry about how you're going to do it," she says.