New Year’s resolutions are so enthusiastically made in the first week, yet somehow forgotten by February. What if you could maintain your resolutions for at least 48 hours? Here’s that hilariously written guide on how to ride that wave of motivation long enough to at least feel like a resolution success, for at least two days. From formulating hopelessly unattainable goals to broadcasting your ambitious plans on social media, we guide you through the process of how to go about keeping that excitement and optimism going just long enough to make it count. Learn to overreact in the first week or so, formulate vague resolutions and make them energetic, and adopt that “fresh start” mentality in which everything is possible.
Admittedly, your resolutions might not make it past 48 hours, but this book will teach you how to gain brief moments of victory while laughing at inevitable slip-ups. You will find that to make your friends and followers feel included is enough to create sufficient accountability, learn how vague resolutions are the best defense against failure, and savor little victories-no matter how short-lived. Whether you want to be fit, eat healthier, or just be the more organized you, this is the guide that’s going to help you squeeze every bit of juice out of those early days before you probably derail.
So, if you’re looking for a way to keep your New Year’s resolutions alive for a fleeting moment (or just want a good laugh), this post is your ultimate 48-hour survival guide. Embrace your enthusiasm, go all-in, and enjoy the thrill of achieving your goals for exactly two days. After all, there’s always next year!
How to Maintain Your New Year’s Resolutions for About 48 Hours
We’ve all been there—January 1st arrives, and you’re ready to take on the world with your list of New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you’re going to hit the gym every day, eat more vegetables, or learn a new language. By the time January 3rd rolls around, you’re knee-deep in your couch cushions, surrounded by empty snack bags, questioning your life choices. Keeping New Year’s resolutions is, let’s face it, a hard task.
But suppose I said, hey, if I told you there’s a way you can at least keep those New Year’s resolutions for 48 hours. Then, yeah, sure, you’re going to be one of those resolution-making, goal-setting successes—at least for 48 hours. And it takes a little bit of motivation, a lot of enthusiasm, and probably a bit of delusion, so who’s counting? Okay, let’s dig into just how one sticks to those resolutions for like 48 hours because let’s face it, anything longer than that is just too much.
Step 1: Begin with Unattainable Goals
But if you’re going to make it past day 48 following your resolutions, why not dream big? It’s a clean slate at the tail end of the holidays, and it’s the energy of a worldwide body promising to change–there can be much hoopla. Why not make your resolutions outrageous and implausible?
Instead of deciding that you are going to exercise three times a week, you are going to tell yourself you are going to run a marathon tomorrow. Or instead of resolving that this year is going to be the healthier year, you will determine this is the year you go vegan! Trust me you will be so amped up on the challenge you won’t even appreciate the fact that you’re setting yourself up for failure, at least not yet.
The secret to surviving those first 48 hours has little to do with setting outlandish goals and much to do with the excitement of the goal. That jolt of inspiration, that possibility, cannot come but from a new year-and, in fact, a whole new list of outlandish goals. You’re in the zone, untouchable by anything except, of course, your own inability to realistically follow through after two days.
Step 2: Share Your Goals with the World
Important note: You need to let everybody in the world know what you are going to resolve today, so everybody knows how seriously you mean it. Facebook, your coworkers, your friends, and even that person who bumped into you at coffee shop. The more people you announce it to, the harder you will feel pushed to keep going-and that’s exactly what you need in the first 48 hours.
More than that, nothing says motivation like a public declaration of your plans. You are, in effect, putting yourself on the hook and locking yourself in-and this might just give you that burst you need to keep up the charade for a couple of days or so. But you’re not doing this only for yourself. You are doing it for your followers.
For one, who will complain about that post of gym selfies with #NewYearNewMe, and who wants to be taken as a quitter of a resolution on 3rd January? Nobody. So you push through—at least for 48 hours.
Step 3: Overdo It (Just For the First Two Days)
Overdoing things in the first two days has to start things really for kicking off. If your goal is to work out more, don’t start with a simple 30-minute jog. No, no, you’re going to sign up for a high-intensity boot camp class, hit the gym for two hours, or maybe even run a 10K. You would push yourself to such an extent, that by the last of the second day your body will scream at you to stop, but you’ll still have a feeling of accomplishment.
If your resolution is to eat better, don’t just make a salad. No, instead, you’re going to juice every vegetable known to mankind, toss some chia seeds in your smoothie, and prepare five types of organic grain bowls, all while Instagramming the entire process. You’re going to overachieve, and that overachievement will fuel your resolve—at least for 48 hours.
Do so much at the outset that you’ll feel like you’ve achieved something monumental: you’ll get a feeling of triumph after two days of pouring your all into keeping up with your resolutions, which should be enough to last you just long enough to keep going a little further.
Step 4: Make your resolutions vague but enthusiastic
Now that you’ve chosen completely unattainable and trite resolutions, let’s fatten the soup with a bit of vagueness. One strategy to ensure you can keep the illusion of “success” alive for 48 hours is to be intentionally vague about exactly what your resolutions entail. Thus, if you blow your lofty objectives, you can always say you were just “working on it.”
For example, you would never say, “I’m going to lose 20 pounds by March,” but you could say something a little more flexible like, “This year I’m really going to focus on living a healthier lifestyle! That way you’ll have the latitude because you’re going to binge-watch Netflix and consume an entire pizza by the end of the week. You can just tell everybody you’re “still working on it,” and technically, you haven’t broken your resolution yet.
Being vague is the perfect defense against your inevitable slip-ups, so don’t be afraid to make promises that are so broad that they can mean whatever you want them to mean.
Step 5: Use the “Fresh Start” Mindset to Your Advantage
One of the best ways to stay on track for at least 48 hours is to tap into the power of the “fresh start” mindset. The new year represents a blank slate, a reset button for your life, and that mindset is incredibly powerful when it comes to motivation. For the first 48 hours, everything feels possible because you’re operating on the excitement that comes with a new beginning.
Welcome to that feeling! Spend the first few days of this cycle believing that this time will indeed be different. So every morning wake up ready and optimistic, knowing you’re on the cusp of greatness. Maybe even seize some fleeting moments of joy as you realize for the first time that you actually stuck to your plan-for at least two days.
You are thriving, and nothing – at least not yet – can stop you.
Step 6: Enjoy the Victory (While It Lasts)
Secret to making those 48 hours feel like a huge achievement: Let yourself enjoy that victory in what you’ve accomplished. If it’s killing that workout, the healthy meals you prepared, or just the fact that you actually followed through on something for two days, celebrate it. You did something.
After all, most people bail on their resolutions after a week, so if you’ve made it to 48 hours, you’re ahead of the curve. Treat yourself to a little victory lap—just make sure it’s within the first 48 hours before the inevitable downfall begins.
Step 7: Let It Go (And Prepare for Next Year)
And then finally, after something akin to 48 hours, you can let go. Your resolutions have done their job: they inspired, made excited, and made you think you were going to do it. Now, back to the regularly scheduled programming. You enjoyed the high, and even though it won’t last at all, well at least you gave it a shot for about two days.
And hey, there’s always next year to try again. You’ll have an entire 365 days to come up with new goals, new plans, and maybe even set yourself up for another 48-hour streak of success. And who knows? Maybe next year, you’ll be able to extend that streak to 72 hours.
Conclusion
Keeping your New Year’s resolutions for 48 hours is an achievable, albeit brief, success. By setting unrealistic goals, telling everyone about your ambitions, overdoing it in the beginning, and enjoying the fresh start mentality, you’ll be able to bask in the glory of your determination—for exactly 48 hours. After that, just reset for next year and try again. You’ve got this. Maybe.
+ There are no comments
Add yours