Better self-care and looking after your mental health have been popular goals set by many of us this year. Along with looking at the bigger picture when it comes to wellness and what we put out into the world.

The key to sticking to our goals is accountability, as well as making a concerted effort to be kinder to ourselves as we ease further into the calendar year. Sticking to your self-care resolution isn’t about “smashing goals” and #goinghard. But rather about taking things slowly and surely as you make incremental changes in your life.

Self-care, healthier habits, clearer mindsets… all these goals are achievable, but with daily practice, they turn into routine.

It’s all about accountability

Accountability has been called the baseline to success in every part of life. Whether that is finding your dream job, getting a stronger body, or improving your relationships with yourself and others. But how do you exactly stay accountable to yourself when it comes to self-care and wellness goals?

Write them down!

Whether you’re a fan of planners and calendars or would rather journal, writing down your goals has been proven time and time again to increase your chances of success.

When recording your self-care goals and ambitions for accountability, be specific and be realistic. If this is your first go at daily exercise, starting off by committing to seven days per week of intense exercise probably isn’t the best way to proceed. Start slowly and build your way up.

Tangibly seeing your goals in front of you makes them real and concrete, undoubtedly increasing your chances of remaining accountable.

Take it step by step 

If you’re trying to make a big change, thinking about its large scale will only stress you out and make you freeze in fear. Break it down into mini-goals or milestones, and schedule the completion of each milestone. Take the time to create this schedule when you’re motivated and have decided to implement the new habit, behaviour change or goal. This takes care of all of the heavy lifting ahead of time. 

Be specific with your schedule, too. Do you need to set a reminder so you don’t get side-tracked and forget? Know yourself and acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses. The more thought you put into the activity ahead of time, the more accountable you’ll be in the present moment.

Be honest with yourself 

It’s easy to make excuses and rationalise your choices when you’re simply talking to yourself in your own head. Yet when things don’t go as planned or if you find yourself in a situation where you weren’t able to stay accountable, be honest with yourself. Use that time of reflection to determine what went wrong, why you didn’t stay accountable, and what you can do differently next time. We’re human, we all make mistakes. However, you should want to learn from them and move forward rather than repeat them and standstill.

Share your goals 

Whether it’s your best friend, partner, or maybe even a buddy at yoga, talk to them about your goals. The more you verbalise and discuss your plans, the more responsible you will feel for accomplishing them. Perhaps ask them to check-in with you to see how it’s going each week or month. By both verbalising and writing down your self-care and wellness goals you will feel compelled to remain accountable and see them through to the end.

How to get back on track 

How many times have you committed to a goal, hyped yourself up, and created this larger-than-life expectation for yourself; only to be human and then feel bad about yourself? It’s happened to a lot of us many times.

It’s important to remember that these are your goals, so any type of outcome you are working towards, should be something that came from inside of you. It should be something that you feel inspired to do, and the reason that you’re feeling like you want to do this is because this is something that you want to do from a deep place inside of you. Focus on that place, dust yourself off, and get back on track. We know you can do it!