How to actually achieve your New Year’s resolution (and annoy your friends in the process)

The end of a year has a way of reminding us about the things we haven’t done, about our own personal flaws that need correcting and the things we’d like to do to remedy our own perceived shortcomings.

So what do we do? We charge into the new year making resolutions in the waning moments of the old one, determined to shed our old selves and leave the flawed version behind and start anew once the calendar flips. Why one can’t just do that on a month to month basis is beyond me. These hollow proclamations that invariably litter conversations around offices and bars and pollute your social media feeds with hoary and empty promises serve if nothing else to remind you that hey, it’s been a long December and this year is going to be better than the last.

Then, the calendar flips, the champagne dries, your New Year’s Eve hangover subsides and…now what? Remember all those things that you said you were going to do, all those promises that you made to actually, you know, do something this year? All, or most of those things, generally get forgotten sometime between when you sign up for that new gym membership (it’s going to be different this time, I swear!, you tell yourself) and, um, Valentine’s Day, only to be brought up on the off chance you find yourself reminiscing about New Year’s with an acquaintance.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s entirely possible to set reasonable goals at the end of a year that maybe didn’t live up to your expectations and actually achieve them. I did it in 2017 when I decided I was going to get back into running, countless others have done it before me.

Here’s how you can do it too:

Step 1: Baby steps

When I’d make New Year’s resolutions in the past, a big part of why I never followed up on them is because they were unrealistic and too time/labor intensive for me to see them through. It happens. Life gets in the way, and trying to make drastic life changes all at once can be a bit jarring. Instead of doing everything at once, start by setting a long term goal and making it so that there are a couple of smaller milestones that you can achieve along the way to keep yourself motivated.

In my case with running, I knew I wanted to be able to run a marathon by October, but I also knew that I hadn’t run in almost 20 years and I wasn’t going to make it to the starting line let alone the finish line if I didn’t pace myself along the way and build up to 26.2.

Obviously, not all New Year’s resolutions are fitness related — For instance, if you want to travel, figure out how much you’re going to need in order to have the vacation you want and start setting aside money in the new year for that (I’ve found that Digit is particularly effective in helping me save money without even thinking about it.).

Step 2: Make a plan

This doesn’t have to be incredibly detailed, but it helps if you start planning the changes you’re going to be making in your life ahead of time so you have a general idea of what to expect so that, again, it’s not a shock to your system when everything starts happening all at once.

This was the hardest part for me because I’m not now nor have I ever been one who plans much farther than the front of my nose. In my case when I got back into running, I downloaded a Couch to 5k app so that I knew exactly how far I had to run on each day in order to get back into running shape and could track my progress along the way. That being said, it helped me from a planning perspective because I could see where I needed to be physically and when I needed to be there. Rather than jump in full force, planning things out helped me ease into the “new me” in 2017 that I swore I was going to become during the waning moments of 2016.

Step 3: Talk about it. Frequently

Sure you’ll run the risk of annoying your friends and loved ones and coworkers and even random people on the bus, but talking about the progress you’re making towards your goal helps keep you on track. For me, that came in the form of myriad social media posts occasionally documenting what I was doing and how I was progressing along the way. This doesn’t have to be, nor should it be, the only thing you talk about, but the social media era has given us public forums in which we can hold ourselves accountable while at the same time tracking our own progression over time. If your friends get sick of occasionally hearing about it, that’s their problem.

That’s how I wound up completing my new year’s resolution ever in 2017, running a marathon and losing a couple of inches off my waist in the process. In 2018, I’m going to be running a second (and possibly a third) marathon, and I’m hoping to drop around 20 pounds before the Chicago Marathon rolls around in October so I’m not struggling through those last 6.2 miles of the race. And if I can follow through on a New Year’s resolution, you can too.

I’m running the 2018 Chicago Marathon to benefit Open Heart Magic, which works with kids in hospitals across Chicago to teach them magic tricks and bring light to their lives during a time when they need it most. Please consider donating here, and know that both I and every kid that OHM reaches every year appreciates your support.