Setting goals is actually good for mental health and life satisfaction. But all too often, we set audacious—and let’s face it, near-impossible—aspirations that basically set us up for failure. In turn, this can create frustration, threaten our self-confidence, and sometimes leave us feeling worse than we did before setting said goal. So what’s the deal? The key to really sticking to plans lies in motivation—and more importantly, maintaining that motivational stamina far beyond the first month (or week) of the year. Luckily, there are some effective ways you can “trick” yourself into staying positive and productive—ultimately accomplishing whatever goal, large or small, you’ve set for yourself (New Year’s resolution–related or otherwise). Here, psychologists share some tried-and-true strategies that really work. So, for example, say your goal is to incorporate more vegetables and whole grains into your diet. You find this easy and fun for a few weeks—then you get a craving for pizza and decide to order takeout. Rather than accepting that you’re human, and sometimes you’ll eat cheesy, topping-piled slices and sometimes you’ll prefer a salad, you engage in “all-or-nothing” behavior (“I’ll clearly never be able to choose the healthiest option all the time, so there’s no point trying anymore”). So you give up on the goal entirely. This is a common habit, but isn’t healthy or helpful. Once you isolate exactly when you’ve hit that discouraged, all-or-nothing mindset, the second part of cognitive restructuring comes: attempting to change these thoughts into more realistic ones. Sticking with the above example, this might look like, “I really enjoyed pizza last night and I’m looking forward to my nutritious oatmeal and fruit in the morning,” instead of, “I’ve failed at my resolution and I’ll never succeed.” It sounds trite, but life really is about balance (no one can eat steamed veggies for dinner all the time). “If you can alter your thinking to be healthier, there’s a greater likelihood of staying motivated and committed,” Thomas explains. “You can consciously convert the thoughts to a more middle-ground perspective, so you remain logical versus emotionally fired-up, which can interfere with motivation to stick with goals.” RELATED: 9 Unhealthy Coping Habits That End Up Hurting More Than Helping If you’re an artistic person who responds to visual reminders, Dr. Ditzell recommends collecting images or words from magazines or online that encompass what you want to become or achieve. Place these inspiring photos in a place you see every single day. “Essentially, you’re trying to jump-start the brain’s dopamine pleasure pathways to fuel performance,” he says. “Remember, you can revisit and modify the vision of what you’re trying to create to continue making it exciting and novel to the mind.” RELATED: How to Start Working Out (If You Basically Haven’t Moved Since Halloween) All of these questions can help identify whether you’re coming from a place of positivity and purpose, or setting aspirations fueled by things like fear or shame. “When we have this mindset towards ourselves, it is difficult for us to stay motivated because we get stuck in a negative cycle of thought,” says Hanna Stensby, a licensed marriage and family therapist. “Focusing on your identity and your self-perception with a lens of self-compassion is a great way to stay motivated.” Even if the goal itself doesn’t change (“I want to rethink my spending habits”), the mindset and motivation for setting it impacts your likelihood of sticking to it (“I’m so broke and bad at saving money—there’s something wrong with me,” can become something like, “I want to learn how to curb unnecessary spending and save up for the things I love in the future.”)
