Each year many people make New year’s resolutions, unfortunately only a small percentage of people are successful in achieving them. Hopefully these tips can help you become successful at achieving your goals.
There are various keys to making successful resolutions:
1. First and foremost, is it something you really want to achieve? or is it something you feel you ‘should’ do or worse is it something someone else feels you ‘should’ do? Only commit to resolutions you are passionate about and that align with your values. Make sure it is something you don’t need to rely on other people to achieve, it is your resolution, no one else’s.
2. State your resolution in positive terms – I ‘will’ … not I ‘must’ or I ‘hope’ – vow to eat healthier and exercise more not to go on a diet: I am going to look better, feel better and be healthier, not “I will only eat 800kcals a day.”
3. Keep the number of resolutions to a minimum – if you have several things you’d like to achieve, set about achieving one at a time, you’ll need a hierarchy, which change comes first? If you attempt to make multiple changes simultaneously, you make success very unlikely. Focus on one change then move on to another after the first one is integrated into your life.
4. Write your resolutions down and share them with people. Both increase your accountability and investment.
5. I recommend creating a mantra or motto for your goal and posting it on your bathroom mirror, at your workstation and/or on the fridge. Highly visible places that you will see every day. “I will exercise today” or “get moving”
6. Download a mobile app that supports your goal. I wrote a short blog post mentioning some apps that are useful for becoming healthier, saving money, or getting financially organized. Truly whatever your resolution, there will be a mobile app that can help, use one for reinforcement.
7. Slip ups happen – it doesn’t mean the resolution has failed and that you can scrap it. Recognize the slip, correct it and get back to your plan. A habit takes at least 21 days to be established and 6 or more months to be fully ingrained. Focus on the new habit instead of the old one.
8. The most important part of a successful resolution is the plan you create to achieve it. Your plan should break your goal down into small steps, as small as they have to be to allow you to be successful. If your goal is to lose 30lbs, have weekly goals that lead you to the 30lb loss.
Make sure the goals are Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and are Time-bound. It isn’t realistic to lose 30lbs in a month so what is realistic for you? Perhaps 6 months? Set a certain time each week when you’ll weigh-in, meet your weekly goal as it will lead you to the ultimate goal and emotionally it is less taxing to lose 2lbs this week than have a constant focus on the 30lbs.
Have some ideas for what you will do when it gets difficult to stick to your resolution. One should consider potential ‘trouble spots’ and have ideas on how to avoid those spots or slips. If you find it really difficult to go for a run when you get home from work do it before work or stop at the gym on your way home. Create strategies to usurp your unhelpful tendencies.
And remember, lasting change is most often a marathon not a sprint.
Lastly so many of us focus on ‘us’ in creating our resolutions. We want to lose weight, reduce our debt, quit smoking, get a better job, drink less, etc. It would be wonderful if we also considered making a resolution that helps others – volunteering, charitable work, being neighborly, donating unused clothing and other items to appropriate charities, and do a good deed each week.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if each of us made a commitment to a resolution that benefited others?
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