New Year's resolutions: tricks to make them stick

 Is your list of New Year's resolutions longer than your holiday shopping list was? Is 2013 the year you're going to pull it all together, get a job if you don't have one, quit smoking (anything), get better marks, and learn to run a seven-minute mile?

Good for you. Those are all valid goals, and we at The Campus wish you luck.

Personally, though, I know I'm going to need more than luck if I'm going to introduce some positive change into my life. Yet, there always is a certain point in our lives when we feel all the excitement of change and taking control with a sense of dread chasing close on its heels: what if I can't do it? What if I quit, and next year on January 1, I'm resolving to do this again? That feeling of dread convinces us not to even bother trying.

It really all comes down to inertia, and you'll notice that once you "get moving", so to speak, it's not hard to continue; in fact, it's more natural to do so than to rest. By this point, accomplishing things will have become a habit.

So how do you get there?

The American Psychological Association held an online discussion on this very topic, and their first suggestion was to start small. Do you want to quit smoking? It's probably not a good idea to quit cold turkey, the APA suggests, unless you're really sure you can do that. If you set unattainable goals and fail to attain them, you begin to internalise failure until you stop trying. Nobody wants to feel like a failure.

The key part is this: the principle works the other way around. Success begets more success. If you decide to cut back your habit to a pack a week, for instance, or you switch to an e-cigarette, you've made some positive change, and that will feel good. You'll feel physically healthier and mentally capable, and you're going to want to keep decreasing the amount you smoke until finally you don't smoke at all. You can do this over the course of the year, rather than throwing away your cigarettes on January 2 and buying another pack later that night.

In the same vein, you should only change one behaviour at a time. January 1 has a way of making people panic, thinking they should reassess their entire lives, which is counterproductive. If you resolve to get better marks and stop spending so much time on the Internet, for instance, start with one or the other, and concentrate on that until you feel you have it under control.

Lastly, don't beat yourself up, and don't be afraid to ask for help. If you're trying to get to the gym three days a week and today just feels like a lazy day, try calling a friend to see if they want to go with you. If not, and you end up sitting around reading so that you only go twice that week, that's okay too. You went twice more than you could have. Be forgiving and gentle with yourself.

It's important to make changes because you love yourself enough to do it, not because you hate yourself and wish you were different. Go to the gym and quit smoking because you're a good person who deserves to be healthy and happy, not because you hate your body and you wish you could drop some weight. Get better marks because you know you can, not because you think you might be stupid. Finally, spread the word: the APA suggests telling a few select people what you've resolved so they can provide moral support when the going gets tough.