How to make and stick to resolutions - Lawrence High School

Image: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7113/7537707854_d25600fd30.jpg

The New Year begins with fresh resolutions and a desire to start everything clean and afresh, erasing past mistakes and paving a clear road for the time to come.

“Oh! Please let this year be, I’ll surely study every day from the next academic year!” Isn't this a familiar phrase that we get to hear from our kids during the schooling years? Making resolutions and sticking to them is a tricky job and we as adults and parents need to help our children set realistic goals and stick to them.

Here are a few tips that can help you and your child decide what works best and what approach works best when it comes to following the set goals:

Set realistic goals: Any expectation needs to be realistic and in tune with the innate aptitude and capacity of a person. A child that gets an average of 60% in all subjects cannot be expected to score 90% all at once the next time onwards. A more realistic goal like understanding the concepts better or taking more efforts to keep the answer sheets neat and clean could be some realistic targets that can be set.

Break down the goals into smaller, manageable ones:  “I will study better next year” is a vague and open statement that can lose steam once the year begins and activities pour in. Instead, setting aside a specific time frame for a particular activity each day will make the goal more achievable and will also give a better perspective of where one stands viz-a-viz the larger picture at any given point of time.

Expect setbacks: Old and annoying habits take a long while to change. A lapse in the new routine is natural and bound to happen, and especially if it is quite drastically positioned to the existing one. The trick is to not get de-motivated by these small failures. Always keep the larger goal in mind, brush off minor setbacks and prepare yourself to surge ahead with renewed vigour.

Keep aside time for self-improvement and hobbies: goals need not always be related to studies or academics. It is vital to grow individually and become a better person with each growing year. Taking time out to experience newer places, reading more books, reaching out to others and pursuing hobbies are some of the things that play a more vital role in shaping one’s personality. Make an attempt to include these in your list of”to-achieve”.

And last and not the least,

Be sincere in your approach: do not start the year with the notion that resolutions are meant to be broken! Own the resolutions that you set and make every sincere effort to see that they are fulfilled.