10 Ways to Make Your New Year's Resolutions Happen

By ASCP Staff

On January 1st of a new year, you have good intentions to make positive changes in your personal life and in your skin care business. However, once the glow of a fresh new year wears off, most of us struggle to make good on these goals. According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 46 percent of people who made New Year’s resolutions were successful. That means over half of the people who set a goal for the new year will fail!

The study also involved people who did not make New Year’s resolutions but did have a goal they wanted to achieve that year. Only 4 percent of these folks were successful at achieving their goals, a far bleaker result than those who did make resolutions.

Naturally, we don’t want to be in the camp of those who failed to achieve their aspirations and dreams for 2021, so here is a plan to help you follow through on your resolutions for 2022.

Prepare For Change Mentally

Before diving headfirst into your 2022 goals, take an inventory of the past year’s accomplishments—not just the areas that may have been lacking. Ponder these questions:

What did I set out to do in the past year? If your goal for 2021 was to increase your skin care clientele by 20 percent, were you successful?
Where did I make progress? Perhaps your skin care retail sales increased by 10 percent.
Where didn’t I see progress? You might not have gained as many clients as you wanted in 2021. It’s important to include this in your inventory, but don’t focus solely on that lack of progress.

As you start thinking about the changes you want to implement, make sure to stay positive, make thoughtful, gradual changes, and allow yourself some room for error.

Set a Goal That Motivates You

You would be surprised how often people set goals that are not for themselves. These goals could be dictated by your spa manager, spouse, or peer pressure.

If you don’t share the same passion for your goals as external sources do, you are likely not going to succeed. You need to make sure the goal you set is important to you and only you and that there is value for you in achieving the goal. This will give you the motivation to want to succeed.

Don’t Make Too Many Resolutions

A common mistake in making resolutions is making too many and spreading yourself too thin. All estheticians want to learn all the new skin care techniques and dive into training on all the new equipment. We want to eliminate all our bad habits and be the epitome of health. But we are not superheroes. We only have so much time and attention we can dedicate to our business and personal goals. To increase your chances of success, make a short list of resolutions you can manage in the upcoming year. Maybe you’re just dying to take that microneedling class or learn sugaring for hair removal. Or it’s important for you to reduce sodium intake and take long walks three times a week. Prioritize the most important things for you to accomplish.

Final thought: It’s better to tackle one resolution well than multiple resolutions poorly.

Put it in Writing

Why should you write down your goals? Here are four reasons:

It will help you clarify what it is you want to achieve.
Having a written account of your goals is a constant reminder to take action.
We set goals to move forward, and your written goals will spur you forward when you hit a speed bump.
Written goals are a reminder of how far you have come and what you have achieved. It’s a nice feeling to look at back at the end of next year and know your resolution has come to fruition. It’s a reason to crack open that bottle of champagne and celebrate.

Share Your Resolutions With Others

If no one else knows about the goals you have set, it’s easy to put them aside and ignore them. And when you don’t achieve it, no one will notice or care.

Crazy as it sounds, this sense of guilt is often more powerful than self-motivation. The upshot here is that when you do succeed, the people you shared with will celebrate with you!

Revisit Your Resolutions Regularly

Let’s face it, your life is busy with clients, family, social commitments, etc., but if you are not thinking about your resolutions regularly, you are not going to follow through. At a minimum, you should review your goals monthly, but the more frequent the better.

Here’s one way to build in goal review into your routine.

Schedule a monthly “big picture” review during the first week of each month. This will serve as a planning meeting where you distribute smaller tasks and goals to different weeks throughout the month.
Do a weekly check-in to check progress on the monthly goal.
Set a daily reminder for smaller resolution tasks.

It may seem a little crazy to think about your goals every single day, but it is those smaller incremental steps that lead to massive changes over the course of a single year.

Setbacks Can Happen

It will take time for your resolutions to become a reality, and we know change is difficult. In fact, we’ve already established we should leave some room for mistakes and setbacks.

Keep the following ideas in mind:

Skipping an intermediate task is not a complete failure.
Missing a goal by 10 percent or even 80 percent is not a complete failure.
Finishing a task late is not a complete failure.

If you do have a setback, it’s important to understand what led to that moment, and how you can avoid a similar situation in the future; i.e., If I buy this new outfit, I won’t be able to afford the chemical peel class I want to attend next week. What is more important to me?!

Follow these steps to make your resolutions, and 2022 will be your best year yet!