New Year, New You?

If you haven’t given your New Year’s goals much thought yet, it’s never too late (or too early). When living with type 1 diabetes, you may want some, or even all, of your New Year’s resolutions to focus on improving your physical and emotional wellbeing. Being intentional and deliberate about setting yourself goals is often the first step to accomplishing them – it’s hard to achieve something if you don’t know what you want to achieve!

5 Tips On How To Set A New Year’s Goal¹

Despite being a popular activity, there isn’t much research on the effectiveness of making New Year’s resolutions.¹ However, the few studies that have been published, along with some good judgment, gives us some insight on how to set yourself up for success when it comes to reaching your goals.

1. Make your goals realistic.

If your New Year’s resolution is to halve your body weight by the end of January, you may be in for some disappointment! (Not to mention it is probably not being very healthy). Conversely, determining to reduce your weight by a single kilogram by December, while likely very achievable, may not stir you much in the motivation department. Set yourself a goal that is both achievable, but that will also require some effort – it’ll make it even more satisfying when you get there!

2. Frame your goal as an approach-oriented rather than an avoidance-oriented target.

An approach-oriented goal is one in which you’re positively motivated, such as by a reward or by a sense of achievement. An avoidance-oriented goal is when you’re negatively motivated, such as trying to avoid looking like a failure in front of other people. Though both mindsets can be used to aim at the same target, it may be much more fun and less stressful to let yourself be positively driven rather than negatively.

3. Be specific about what you want to achieve.

Being vague or abstract about your goals tends to be less successful than setting a specific goal. For example, rather than telling yourself, you want to “lose weight”, how about deciding on a specific number of kilograms that you want to have dropped by the end of a certain timeframe.

4. Consider interim goals.

Though this doesn’t work for everybody, you may want to think about breaking down one major New Year’s resolution into smaller goals at shorter intervals, like checkpoints along your journey. While setting a goal in the far-distant future gives you more time to procrastinate, setting up targets to aim for at closer intervals can help keep you on track.

5. Surround yourself with support!

Perhaps support looks like finding a friend who has the same New Year’s goal as you, so you can keep each other accountable and stay on track. Alternatively, perhaps you prefer an officially organised support group. Many studies have demonstrated the benefit of social support in successfully achieving one’s goals.

Ideas Of Goals To Get You Thinking

Here are just a few suggestions of some New Year’s goals. You may want to take some or all of these onboard for yourself, or just use them to prompt your own ideas about what you really want to achieve in the new year.

• Exercise goals: For example, join a weekly gym class or dance group. An exercise goal might also look like deciding to go for a jog every second day or doing 10 push-ups a day and increasing it by 2 push-ups every week. To get you started, you may want to check out our two fun videos, Be Active. Stay Active and Exercising with Maria for some simple workouts you can try.
• Nutrition goals: Perhaps you know you’re not quite getting in your 5 serves of fruit and vegetables every day, or maybe your omega-3 fatty acid intake could do with a boost up to the recommended 2 or more servings of fish per week.²
• Emotional wellbeing goals: Your body isn’t the only thing that needs to be taken care of – your mind and emotional wellbeing are just as important. If it sounds appealing, you may consider setting yourself a goal of practising 15 minutes of daily meditation, or perhaps you know it’s time to seek a counsellor to help with unaddressed emotional challenges.
• Diabetes management goals: Your diabetes healthcare team may be able to make some great suggestions here. Maybe you can decide to check your insulin supplies once a week or being more diligent in monitoring your blood glucose levels.

Final Thoughts

Whatever you resolve to achieve in the New Year, remember to set yourself up for success by working with your diabetes healthcare team and considering the tips above. Also, even the best intentions can fall through, so cut yourself some slack if you don’t quite get there. You could always count every day as a “New Year” and a new chance to try again!

References

1. Oscarsson M, Carlbring P, Andersson G, Rozental A. A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals. PLoS ONE.2020;15(12): e0234097.
2. NHS. 5 A-day portion sizes. https://www.nhs.uk/. 2018. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day-portion-sizes/. (Accessed September 2021).