5 Tricks to Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

2016 is nipping at our ankles! The new year presents an opportunity to us to make a fresh start and tackle all of the things we want to change about ourselves. But change and growth don’t happen without a little resistance. Keeping resolutions is tough, but there are a few ways to stick to them. Here are 5 tricks to keeping your New Year’s resolutions.

Accountability Being accountable to ourselves is a lot easier said than done and that’s why you should bring in a partner to help you reach your goals and you can help your partner reach her goal. Check in with each other daily to exchange notes on your progress and encourage each other to keep at it.

Baby Steps If you made a lot of resolutions, you may want to pare down your list to make it manageable. Having to change too many habits at once can be overwhelming. If there are a lot of behaviors you really want to eliminate, try splitting them up throughout the year. Start with three and when you’ve conquered those, move on to the next three. Or, start a new resolution cycle in July and make a goal to get yourself sorted by the time you start your holiday shopping again.

Reminders If you’re serious about making changes, you have to remind yourself of what you need to do to succeed. Keep your resolution list handy. Read it in the morning to remind yourself how to conduct yourself throughout the day. At night, re-read the list to make sure you stayed on task. Keep doing this until it’s habit (it takes about 66 days to create a habit).

Don’t Be Too Hard On Yourself If you fail in the first few days of the new year, don’t give up! Give yourself a little room for mistakes. Creating new habits is hard. If you don’t make it through one day without engaging in your bad habits, start again the next day. It might take a few tries; it’s part of growing and developing better habits.

Focus on the Positive Try to stay positive. When you’re feeling discouraged about a resolution, think about how your life will change for the better if you keep your resolutions. When you get through a day without partaking in a bad habit, celebrate it! Reward yourself — but don’t replace one bad habit for another. For instance, if you want to quit smoking, don’t reward yourself with chocolate so that chocolate becomes your new habit. Try to make your rewards intangible.

The Lakeside Collection has products and ideas to make 2016 a great year! Whether you need storage solutions to keep your resolution is to keep a more harmonious home or you’re looking for ideas on de-cluttering, look to Lakeside to make this a fabulous year.