We’re a week in and if you’ve already fallen off the resolution wagon, all is not lost!!! So don’t give up on it just yet. Read on for three tips on how to save it.

Full disclosure though, I’m not a fan of resolutions in general. Just the act of making a new year resolution gives us a sense of accomplishment, like we’re doing something because we actually decided.

But deciding on the resolution was simply the first thing in a long line of steps and no real action has been taken yet. So while the decision to make a change matters, until there’s action involved, there’s no real accomplishment yet.

Maybe you DID take action though… after all, we’re a week in and maybe you stuck with it for a few days and then petered out.

If I had to guess, part of it is because the shiny wore off. The newness and magic of a blank page from a week ago seems long gone, and now you’re back in the humdrum of life and this resolution just doesn’t quite fit in.

Which brings me to the other part of why it petered out – it was likely too big of an ‘ask’ on yourself and it’s easier not to do it than it is to keep doing it.

Us humans are lazy, give us the path of least resistance every time.

And resolutions aren’t least resistance, they’re often the most resistance. But we count on our sparkly new year high to give us the motivation to counteract that resistance.

So if this sounds all too familiar and you’re trying to salvage some semblance of a resolution because you actually DO want to make that change, here are three tips for doing so.

1. Break It Down

Because we are high on the idea of a new year, it’s easy around this time to forget how hard it is to change. If it was easy, don’t you think you would have made the change last year?

So instead of taking on a massive life overhaul – like going to the gym for an hour 5 days/week (up from zero) – break it down into something small. Like, tiny.

If you are in fact starting at 0 but your end goal is to go to the gym 5 days per week for an hour, start going for a walk for 5 minutes 5 days per week.

And if even that proves to be a challenge, do 5 minutes for one day per week.

Whatever you find is manageable, get consistent at it. Like rock-solid consistent where you don’t miss a single session that you had planned.

Then you’ll work up from there.

Before you start shaking your head that this sounds silly and won’t do anything, let me ask you this – if you can’t walk for 5 minutes on one day per week, what makes you think you’ll find time to go to the gym for an hour 5 days/week?

Now which sounds silly?

2. Set A Reminder

Once you’ve broken your resolution down into a manageable thing that you KNOW you can do, set a reminder for yourself to do the thing.

I don’t mean a half-hearted promise that you’ll do it every day at 3pm.

No, I mean a real reminder – whether in your phone or your calendar, or have your email system send you an email each time. Whatever method works best for you and how often you want to do the thing.

When trying to establish a new habit you can’t rely on memory to make it happen. You’ve got too much stuff to remember already, amiright??

So set the reminder.

3. Do It With A Friend

The last step is to do whatever you’re doing with a friend.

Find a friend, family member, or even a friendly acquaintance online who you can help hold each other accountable. Explain to them the small thing you’re looking to start doing and let them know when you’re going to do it (cuz you’ve set your reminder) and have them do it too.

Having a specific accountability partner for your goal in mind can increase your chance of success to 95%.

NINETY-FIVE FREAKING PERCENT!!!!!

If that’s not a resolution redo, I don’t know what is.