By Olivia Martin | Social Media Editor

It has officially been one month (and a few days) since Jan. 1, or as it’s better known: day one of attempting to follow our New Year’s resolutions.

Chances are you may have gone to the gym a few more times than normal this month, or maybe tried to drink a little more water than normal, or even cut out sweets for a few days here and there (I could never). Whatever it is, most of us make New Year’s resolutions that we usually forget about by the time Feb. 1 rolls around.

I have found myself in this position for years now and honestly it gets kind of tiring. But don’t worry, I think I have an idea for how we can work on this and maybe even get through the year and feel accomplished with whatever our resolutions were.

I really am not a huge to-do list maker, organized planner, bullet-point journal type of person, but when it comes to bucket lists and the “summer goals” lists you see on Pinterest, I am all for it. I think this is why every year when New Year’s rolls around, no matter how many times I fail to keep the previous years resolutions, I always set unrealistic goals and expectations for myself.

I don’t think this is entirely a bad thing. If anything, I kind of admire that little part of me that has enough hope in myself to think that maybe I’ll do better and actually stick to my resolutions, but this year I have come to the realization that I have been setting too big of goals and resolutions, and that’s why I have failed in the past to accomplish them.

We need to start setting smaller, more realistic goals for ourselves. For example, instead of telling yourself to workout every single day, start small and pick three days out of the week and workout on those days. If three is too many, try two. A lot of the time our heart behind the goals we set is very pure and with good-intention but way too high of an expectation. We need to start setting smaller, more reasonable goals for ourselves, and once we start accomplishing those maybe we can move on to larger goals.

Another important thing to remember when setting goals is to be very specific. When we set vague resolutions, we have nothing concrete to follow which makes it hard to look back and check in on how to gauge if we have actually been following our goals.

For example, instead of telling yourself you want to spend less money, pick a specific area in your life that you spend a lot of money on and try working on just that area. If you know you spend a lot of money on eating out, set a specific goal to cook more homemade meals and focus only on doing that for a while until it becomes more natural.

Having an accountability partner is a great way to stay on track with new goals and resolutions. Even if you aren’t sharing the same goals with that person, having someone who can and will continue to check in with you is super important to help hold you accountable to the resolutions you have set.

Find someone who you trust and feel comfortable sharing your hopes and goals with, and I guarantee you will notice yourself actually accomplishing those things simply because you will be thinking and talking about them more.