20 Simple New Years Resolutions Anyone Can Stick To

How did that 40 lb weight loss turn out?  Did you finish that marathon you promised you would do?

Every year millions of people set New Years Resolutions. It’s a great time to start over and be a new person. A new start, if you would. But resolutions are often set with good intentions and not really a good plan to back it up.  Which ultimately results in failed resolutions for many. What was supposed to be a fresh start becomes another thing you failed at… bah humbug.

So this year, set yourself up for success!  

If you really want to achieve all your resolutions (or heck just one would be nice) start by writing them down. Keep them somewhere nearby where you would see them every day.  Just like a vision board, it’s helpful to remind yourself of your goals every day. 

You can even try sharing them with a friend. Every New Years Eve, my closest friend and I meet for a drink and an hour to share our goals for the next year. We reflect on what we planned last year and how this year has gone for us, and come up with new goals for the year ahead of us. Having someone know your plan helps keep you accountable for it. 

Most importantly, make them achievable! No matter how hard you work at it, a resolution will be broken if you make it something really far out of reach. If you’ve never been to the gym, don’t plan on running that marathon!  

New Years Resolutions can be as big or as small as you want them to be. But if you start small, you’ll have a better chance at succeeding and maybe next year you go a little bigger.  Can’t decide where to start? Here is a great list of simple New Years Resolutions that anyone can achieve.

Easily Achievable and Simple New Years Resolutions

1. Set a REALISTIC Budget.  If you don’t make much money and live paycheck to paycheck, you most likely are not going to pay off all your student loans and live debt free in 12 months.  Dave Ramsey’s money management plan is a great place to start but even the success cases took years to accomplish a debt-free lifestyle. Start with planning a realistic budget. Try to achieve just step one or two of Dave Ramsey’s plan.  Save a small amount or pay off one credit card. Start small and when you achieve that first goal, set a new one and keep going.  There are dozens and dozens of apps that can help with money management for any kind of budget. 

2. Donate Household items.  Donating helps so many people in need. It also helps you to clean out your house and get rid of unwanted or unneeded items. Cross off two goals by cleaning out your closet and donating anything you haven’t worn in the last year.  Have a ton of extra plates or lamps you don’t want?  Look at your local facebook groups for single moms starting over who may need items to start a new life. 

3. Eat Healthy One Day a Week. Diets are often the biggest thing we fail at. Mostly because when we diet, we go cold turkey. No more sugar, no more sweets, carb free… blah blah blah.  It never works. So pick one day a week, like a Wednesday, and vow to eat healthy that ONE day.  If you succeed, start doing TWO days a week, and go from there. 

4. Find a Better Way to Sleep.  Give yourself the simple gift of feeling better every day. Go to sleep just a little earlier. Try to wake up at the same time each day.  Get yourself new bedding to make yourself more comfortable. Use a sleep spray.  Refrain from electronics an hour before you go to bed.  There are several ways you can make small changes to your sleep cycle and wake up more refreshed every day.  

5. Clean One Area of Your Home.  Don’t go overboard and decide to clean and organize your entire house.  The amount of work to be done will seem so overwhelming, you’ll give up right away.  Start by selecting just one room or just one closet. Clean and organize that. When that’s done, you’ll feel so good about it, it will make you want to move on to more. Don’t put a mountain of tasks ahead of you before you even start.

6. Don’t Text and Drive.  This very simple and easy resolution is something that should be done regardless. So make it a resolution and really resolve not to do it!  It doesn’t require any time or money. Make yourself and everyone around you safer.  And then BAM, you just achieved another goal!  

7. Start a New Skill. Again, don’t attempt to master a new skill. Almost no one can master an entire skill in less than a year.  But anyone can start somewhere. It’s simple and easy to find tutorials on almost any topic online these days. Want to learn photography skills?  Learn a new language?  How to cook better? Attempt a watercolor painting?  You can find beginning lessons for these and many others on Pinterest or Youtube. All free and ready for you to explore!

8. Cook a Meal Once a Week.  If you’re a mom, chances are one of your resolutions will be to cook more and eat out less often. It not only saves money but gets our family around the dinner table and spend some time together. With work, kids sports, household chores, and other daily tasks… this goal is often hard to achieve just due to time restraints. So try to pick just one day a week where you plan a meal, make it, and sit down together to enjoy it.  Maybe go for two nights a week if you can.  One meal a week is better than nothing because 7 days a week was too hard to keep up with. 

9. Drink More Water.  It is recommended that you drink at least a half gallon of water every day. I’m lucky if I get one cup down.  I’m just not a fan of water. I love my diet coke. Every time I’ve tried to give up diet coke and drink 2 liters of water a day, I fail!  Don’t give anything up cold turkey. Aim for drinking less soda. Try to just increase your water intake by a glass or two.  Small step!

10. Take a Vitamin. In attempts to make yourself healthier, taking a daily vitamin is one of the easiest things you can do. They even make adult vitamins in gummy form!  Go to a local health food store and talk to someone there.  There are so many vitamins out there that we don’t even know exist. Find something that helps accomplish another goal. Grow your hair, sleep better, have better skin… there are literally vitamins out there that can do anything!

11. Explore Your Home Town More.  Travel is at the top of everyone’s bucket list when it comes to resolutions. Time and money can quickly put a damper on that. Start small with your trips. Plan weekend road trips to different areas around your state. Or stay home and resolve to explore the next town over. Find a new restaurant. Go to the small museums around town. Find a new hiking trail. Chances are, your city has more to it then you thought it did.  

12. Start Working Out.  Notice I didn’t suggest lose X amount of weight… or participate in a 10k mud run? Try just starting something new. Make it a goal to just GO to the gym, once or twice a week. Want to be a runner?  Make it your goal to run once a week. You won’t be marathon status anytime soon, but you won’t give up right away by setting a goal too hard to achieve. 

13. Schedule ME Time.  Who doesn’t need a little more time to themselves?  I know it can seem almost impossible if you have kids, but any amount of time will help. Give yourself a half an hour at night after they go to bed. No chores, no electronics. Just 30 minutes of time all to yourself. 

14. Be Positive More Often.  It is so easy to get caught up in negative thoughts and feelings. When we talk about our kids or gossip about work. Not many people like to hear the good news so we end up sharing all the negative stuff. Try avoiding that talk.  For everything negative you say, say two positive things in return. 

15. Make Your Bed Daily.  I’m not trying to sound like your mom.  This simple task takes less than 5 minutes and can actually have a drastic effect on your mental well-being. I started this about 2 years ago and I’ll never stop. A nicely made bed somehow gives the appearance of a tidy room. Doesn’t matter what the rest of the room looks like, if the bed is made then it all looks nice!  Every night you come in a go to bed, you see a tidy room and automatically feel less anxiety about the household tasks surrounding you. 

16. Pay it Forward.  Buy someones drink the next time you go through Starbucks. Add an item from the person behind you at the grocery store to your bill.  Small everyday tasks will make you feel better and really make someone else’s day.  If we all did this, what a change we would bring to the world.  

17. Give a Compliment Daily.  It doesn’t need to be big. It doesn’t need to be unconvincing. Find something small. Do you like your co-worker’s shoes?  Tell her!  Shopping at Target and see a hairstyle that really looks good on someone? Tell them!  Get over your initial shyness and just try it.  Think of how you would feel if you got a random compliment… and pass that feeling on to someone else. 

18. Learn How to TAKE a Compliment.  Stop putting yourself down. If someone says you look thin, say “Thank You” and nothing more. When you get a compliment on something you worked hard at, accept it. If you get complimented on something you barely had control over, still say thank you.  

19. Change All Your Passwords to a Goal. We do everything online these days and it all comes with accounts with passwords. Make your password something you want to achieve. Want to pay off a credit card by June? Change your passwords to”Payoffcreditcard06″.  If you have to type it in several times a day, every day, you are more likely to achieve your goal.  

20. Give Yourself More Credit.  Have you ever met anyone who has a list of New Years Resolutions and achieved everything on it? Yeah, me neither. If you achieve ONE thing, be proud of yourself and don’t give up!