Tapping into Your Motivation to Keep Your Resolutions

Credit: Flickr/Ruzaqir Rachman

Most people have already broken their New Year’s resolutions because they don’t understand how to keep themselves motivated

A week into the New Year, many people abandon their resolutions, but if you can understand how your motivation works, your chances of keeping those resolutions is much higher

It’s a common occurrence: Gyms that were busy the first week of January are often quiet by the second week. Diets have been broken.

Are we really such weak-willed creatures? Maybe.

But I think the real problem is that resolution-making has become an almost automatic act for most people at the beginning of the year. And they resolve to do something without giving much thought to the way their motivation works.

Tapping into Your Motivation

Before committing to any resolution ask yourself one important question: why am I doing this?

Understanding your motivation will give you a good idea as to your chance of success. When it comes to weight loss and fitness goals, your chances increase if your reasons go beyond simple aesthetics. You need a deeper reason to commit to a resolution than how it will make you look. What feeling will accomplishing your goal give you? What will you gain from it?

Take Back Control of Your Choices

People often use the excuse of not having enough time to work out or eat better. What they’re really saying is they have no or little control over their time. Someone else is controlling what happens to them.

So if you make the time to eat more nutritious food and be more active, what you’re really doing is taking back control of your time and your life. The end result may be a smaller waist size but the feeling of empowerment will be as equally fulfilling as any weight loss.

Knowing that you’ll be more in control of your life and taking time to do something for yourself will help you stick to your resolution. 

Try this exercise and nutrition log to help you stick with your resolutions.