How to keep your New Year’s resolution

Along with ringing in the new year with fireworks, festivities and family, comes the pressure of making and sticking to New Year’s resolutions. All of us make them, but not all of us keep them.

According to Business Insider, 80 percent of resolutions made are forgotten by the time February rolls around.

The new year provides a clean slate with opportunities and possibilities of what the future holds whirling through our minds. People often tend to go big with resolutions, but in the end that is discouraging and the reason why more people fail at achieving them according to Psychology Today.

Some of the most popular resolutions include saving money, stopping procrastination, getting more sleep, being more positive and being healthier.

In order for New Year’s resolutions to be achievable, experts suggest breaking them down into steps. According to the American Psychological Association, small achievements every day will lead to large rewards in the end and will also give you a little something to be happy about on your way to achieving the ultimate goal.

One of the most common resolutions is to become healthier. Shea Allor is a student at Oakland University who has a passion for fitness. She runs her own health and fitness Instagram blog, @shallorfit. Her blog has hundreds of followers who gain inspiration from the healthy meals and workout videos that she posts almost every day.

Through her fitness journey, she has acquired many tips and hacks on how to live a healthier lifestyle. Her top tip to eating healthier is meal preparation for the week.

“College is so busy, so find some time on Sunday and get all of your meals ready to go so you don’t have to take the time to cook three times a day,” Allor said. “It also makes sure you eat healthy the whole week.”

Allor also suggests holding yourself accountable. She said logging workouts and food consumption in a notebook or on your phone can also keep resolutions going past January and keep you motivated.

“Enjoy it,” she said. “Restricting yourself or stressing out about eating healthy or getting to the gym every single day isn’t a healthy way to live. Ease your way into a healthy lifestyle and stick with it, soon they’ll become habits.”

Another popular goal to have at the beginning of the new year is saving money, or perhaps investing. Dr. Austin Murphy, a finance professor at OU, says investing in mutual funds or stocks would be a great way to put your money to work in the new year.

A couple of no-load index funds might be a good simple thing to consider, as well as U.S. I savings bonds if one is risk-averse,” he said. “For those who like to gamble, odds are better with stock options or some penny stocks that are very carefully and intelligently analyzed.”

New Year’s resolutions and goals in general don’t always have to be crazy and unattainable. No matter what your end goal is, small changes every day are the things that will make a big impact in the long run.