8 New Year’s Resolutions that Will Stick

1. Workout to feel good, not to lose weight: Find a form of exercise that fits your personality and lifestyle and stick with it. For instance, if you love to walk, build in 30 minutes each day to walking two miles before or after work. If you need to miss walking a couple of days a week due to work or family commitments, pat yourself on the back for the days you accomplished your goal and double up the next day!
2. 2. Unplug electronic devices one hour before bedtime: Research shows that this practice will help you sleep better and restore your memory and concentration. Grab a book instead and make it your goal to read at least one chapter a night. Make it a habit to charge your phone in a nearby room!
3. Declutter: Clutter can cause your stress to rise. A 2010 study showed that women who had a lot of clutter have higher cortisol levels in their brain (the primary stress hormone) —and their depressed mood increased over the course of the day. Those who had less clutter were less depressed and happier throughput their day in this study.
4. Practice self-care 30 to 60 minutes a day: This includes exercising, reading, talking to a friend, or taking a soothing bath. In order to do this, you’ll need to sometimes say “no” to others and focus more on your own needs and well-being.
5. Read more: Research shows that reading is good for your brain and increases your memory and concentration. Leave a book on your living room coffee table and on your night stand for reminders.
6. Focus on lowering your debt. Pay off any new credit card charges monthly. If an item is too expensive to pay off that month, say no and feel less stress!
7. Start a Gratitude Journal: Write down three things you’re grateful for each day before you go to bed and this will improve your sleep and attitude the next day. Review your list at the end of each week. Post sticking notes in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror as a reminder of the good things in your life.
8. Use more positive self-talk and stop your inner critic: What you say to yourself can affect your mood, according to Shad Helmstetter, PH.D, author of Negative Self-Talk and How to Change it. Negative self-talk such as “Nothing ever works out for me” is detrimental to your self-esteem and to change it, you need to write down and say positive things to yourself such as “I’m going to make a friend who is supportive.” Most of us self-sabotage by being too tough on ourselves. Instead, be nicer to yourself in 2022 and you’ll feel happier and less anxious or depressed. If you have a friend who is negative, limit your contact with them.

Research shows that most people abandon New Year’s resolutions fairly soon after making them. In fact,  studies show that there are many obstacles that prevent people from keeping them such as being unrealistic or making resolutions that are too vague.

If you find yourself setting an unrealistic goal, consider crafting a new one ort revising an old one. For instance, Kyla, 28, found herself making the same goal every year of losing twenty pounds but never accomplished it because it wasn’t realistic. But when she modified her goal to lose fifteen pounds and added eating more healthy food, it was more attainable. By June of that same year she had lost fifteen pounds (in five months) and felt slimmer and healthier.

Find Terry on Twitter, Facebook, and, movingpastdivorce.com. Terry’s award-winning book Daughters of Divorce: Overcome the Legacy of Your Parents’ Breakup and Enjoy a Happy, Long-Lasting Relationship is available on her website. Her new book The Remarriage Manual: How to Make Everything Work Better the Second Time Around was published by Sounds True on February 18, 2020.

I’d love to hear from you and answer your questions about relationships, divorce, marriage, and remarriage. Please ask a question here. Thanks! Terry