How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
As you prepare for New Year’s, you may be thinking about making resolutions. Perhaps you’re hoping to exercise more or make 2025 the year you quit smoking. You may feel like coming up with a list of resolutions is easy, but keeping them is the real challenge.
NY1 invited Chanel Dokun, co-founder of Healthy Minds NYC, to chat with anchor Rocco Vertuccio about tips for setting and keeping your resolutions this year. Check out a few quick tips below. You can also book a free consultation with our Care Coordinator to begin life coaching with Chanel Dokun or another therapist on our team.
We look forward to helping you make 2025 the year you step into the life you’ve been longing to live!
#1 - HOW TO CREATE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
The biggest mistake many New Yorkers make when choosing resolutions is setting goals in a vacuum. You’re more likely to experience failure when you set arbitrary goals disconnected from the reality of your life. Before making any New Year’s resolutions, audit your life first.
This is the same approach we take in life coaching at Healthy Minds NYC. We believe you can’t treat what you haven’t diagnosed, and you can’t diagnose what you haven’t assessed. In order to create long-lasting solutions for our clients, we need a clear understanding of the deeper problem. Perspective comes from keen observation.
This year, as you set your resolutions for 2025, pause to assess how your life is going now, identify which positive aspects you’d like to protect, and then note the areas that are ripe for change. You might kickstart this process by grabbing some post-it notes and asking yourself the following question:
Ask - Where am I thriving, and where am I striving?
#2 - HOW TO KEEP YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
Do you feel like you start strong with your resolutions every year but quickly lose momentum? If so, you might be self-sabotaging through overperformance. Overachievers tend to experience many starts and stops because they bite off more than they can chew when implementing change.
Instead of making extensive, sweeping modifications in your life for the coming year, focus on tiny, fail-proof action steps. For example, create a better resolution if you want to “get healthy” or “exercise more” this year.
First, you'll need to be specific about the desired transformation, then break down the goal into the smallest possible steps. Instead of yoga classes five times a week, wake up each morning and do one yoga pose when you get out of bed. Accomplishing this small action each day will give you the confidence to adopt more changes and create room for the larger goal you desire.
Ask - What is the smallest step I can take toward my larger life goal?
#3 - WHAT TO DO IF YOU BREAK A NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION
Despite your best efforts, you might find it challenging to keep your New Year’s resolutions. That’s okay. Instead of feeling discouraged and giving up on your desired life changes, choose to reframe failure.
Remember that failure and regression are inevitable parts of change. When creating something new, expect to have slip-ups along the way. Think of the coming year as a research and development phase as you launch a new you! You’ll naturally find some solutions that work and other pathways that don’t.
Ask yourself - When I fail (not if I fail), how will I remind myself that failure is okay?
You don’t have to launch into the new year alone. Our team at Healthy Minds NYC is here to support you as you create goals and charge after the life you want. Schedule a free consultation with our care coordinator to learn how life coaching or therapy can help you fast-track your goals and keep you on track.
