6 Ways To Make Your Health And Fitness Resolutions Stick

We all know the drill – you spend the year-end festive season overindulging and neglecting your healthy habits only to arrive in the new year feeling sluggish and in need of a change. 

So, you decide what you need is  a major life overhaul to the tune of several “big” new year’s resolutions. But too often, we bite off more than we can chew at the start of a new year, which only ends up with overpromising and inevitably, underdelivering on our goals.

2024 can be the year you break the cycle of overzealous new year’s resolutions that fizzle out by February (or earlier).  Instead, consider the strategic goal-setting tips I use with my clients that not only get results, but make sure you don’t give up when the “goal-ing” gets tough.

1. Think atomic

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, encourages the “start small” approach – choosing a goal or habit that is so small at first that it can be easily executed, repeated, and built upon day after day.  An example would be, instead of aiming straight for 10,000 steps per day (when you currently struggle to even get half of that!), set your sights on getting 5 per cent more steps per week.  Small, achievable goals with an eye on something bigger (what Clear calls the “compound interest of self-improvement”) ensure that you are meeting yourself exactly where you are, rather than shooting for a target far outside your range.

2. Get SMART

How you phrase your goals matters in terms of how likely you are to reach them – and doing SMART goal setting provides an easy framework for properly-written targets.  The acronym SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. It ensures that a goal moves from the vague (“I want to lose weight”) to the well-articulated (“I want to lose 3kg, at a rate of 500g per week, measured each Wednesday morning, consistently for the first 6 weeks of the year.”)  Writing SMART goals also helps you flesh out the exact steps and plan you’ll need to reach them, which is helpful for those who tend to struggle with execution.

3. Make your goals known

A lot of people are loath to tell others about their goals for fear of being judged if they don’t actually reach them – which, if you think about it, is already an assumption of failure.  I recommend telling everyone you trust – those in your inner circle especially – about your goals, and outlining exactly what kind of support you might need in order to reach them.  An example would be asking a well-meaning friend who always invites you out for coffee and cake if, perhaps, she wouldn’t mind taking your coffees along on a brisk walk instead – sans cake.  Rather than seeing others as potential sources of scepticism or judgment, give your nearest and dearest the opportunity to help keep you accountable and motivated.

4. Give yourself quarterly checkpoints

There’s nothing wrong with setting a year-long goal – but if the only check-in point for achieving it lies on the last day of the year, there’s a potential 364-day gap between intention and action.  Especially if you’re prone to procrastination, and nothing seems further away than December, when you’ve just entered the new year! I suggest creating short-term “checkpoints,” at least once per quarter (about 12 weeks) to make sure you’re making forward progress towards your goal.  Let’s say you want to leave your stressful job to start your own business in the coming year – by March, you’d probably want to have a business plan written; by June, your financial strategy prepared; by September, your resignation; and finally by December – to be fully self-employed.  Giving yourself moderate-term checkpoints that are specific to the pace of your bigger goals ensures that you stay focused and track some measurable progress even while the “main” goal takes a while to reach.

5. Expect the best - but plan for the worst

A positive attitude goes a long way in making any sort of sustained life change, but the reality is that unforeseen bumps and curveballs will happen along the way.  There is no easy, linear path to making true change, and when that’s the expectation, often it’s hard to recover when one’s best-laid plans go awry.  If your goal is to run a marathon, for example, what’s your plan in the case you get injured?  What if your kid gets sick on race morning?  How about the possibility of bad weather – what would you do then?  Preparing contingency plans for potential pitfalls along your projected goal timeline doesn’t mean you’re setting up for failure; rather, it means that you’re invested enough in your goals to divert and adapt around anything life could throw in your way en route to getting there.  Even if the worst never happens (and believe me – I hope that it does not!), the mental exercise of planning around problems builds mental resilience and confidence that you can succeed no matter what.

6. Make self-compassion your mantra

Let’s say you’ve stacked up tips 1 to 5 above and still – your resolutions elude you.  For whatever reason, you can’t hit your targets, life got in the way, and you are still trying to figure out how to get any momentum going on your goals.  Rather than throwing your hands up and reminding yourself what a failure you are, consider acting with self-compassion to help refocus your efforts.  In my 17 years as a coach, the biggest delineating factor between those who reach their long-term goals and those who don’t is how they deal with setbacks – particularly, how they talk to themselves after a big one happens.  Those who attribute every misstep to how awful and weak a person they are negatively reinforce the probability of giving up and failing. On the other hand, those who prop themselves up with a little positive self-talk after a rough spell can usually find a glimmer of hope to keep on pushing – and ultimately, succeed.

Science shows us time and again that new year’s resolutions generally fail, but with some structured goal-setting, peer support, and a resilient attitude, you can be one of the lucky few who actually find success in this year’s journey. 

Amanda Lim is a certified fitness and nutrition coach, perinatal specialist, and mother of two (with a third on the way!).  American by birth but Singaporean at heart, she enjoys hot yoga and CrossFit – followed by a big bowl of laksa. You can find her at @coachamandalim and .