New Year’s resolutions… who really keeps them? The answer to that question could be you even if, like most people, you’ve already abandoned them. Rather than fretting over what you have or haven’t done so far this year, you can still accomplish those New Year’s resolutions – even if you’re starting over a bit later in the year.
Try these action tips to help you achieve the resolutions you made at the start of the New Year:
Make it known. Tell someone close to you about your New Year’s resolution. You’ll be held accountable for your success or lack thereof. By doing so, you’ll feel a bigger commitment to actually complete the goal than if you were to simply keep the goal a secret.
Now there are two incentives to meet your goal: The first is to enjoy the fruits of your labor and say that you’ve completed your goal. The second is to ward off the embarrassment of having to explain why you didn’t complete the goal.
Enlist a friend. Find a friend with a similar goal and work toward reaching your goals together while offering each other moral support.
Weight loss is an especially suitable goal to enlist the help and support of a buddy. Other fine goals a friend could strive for along with you include home improvement projects, monetary goals, and family goals.
Choose a friend that will hold you accountable for reaching your goals. An unmotivated friend that will simply say “It’s okay, try again next year” isn’t the right person for the job.
Break it down. Break your goals down into bite-sized chunks. For example, if your goal is to land 20 new clients by the end of the year, break the goal down into nine months if it’s now March, for example; landing 20 new clients in nine months equates to just over two clients per month (2.2 clients).
Even if you’ve fallen a bit short of the goal, you’ll still have increased your number of clients. Essentially, you’ve succeeded because you’re in a better position than you were last year.
Any goal seems more attainable when broken down into manageable milestones.
Have a plan. Setting a New Year’s resolution without creating a plan for reaching it is a recipe for disaster. For your greatest success, create a plan detailing the exact actions you must take in order to achieve your resolution.
Know exactly what you want to do. Saying, “I want to lose weight” isn’t going to cut it. It leaves a lot of wiggle room. But saying “I want to lose 20-lbs by December 1st” is a much better plan.
Create a detailed plan that entails exactly how you’ll get to your goal. Detail the daily actions that will help you edge towards reaching your resolution. In addition, create an alternate plan in case your initial plan falls short, thus helping you set yourself up for success – one way or the other! Visualization is a very powerful tool for helping you to reach your goals and create change.
New Year’s resolutions can be a powerful goal-setting tool when you have specific aspirations that you’re hoping to fulfill. However, many people go about setting their resolutions incorrectly, which leads to disastrous results and disappointment along the way.
Learning effective resolution-setting strategies can ensure that, this year, you will accomplish what you set out to. Oftentimes, the hardest part of sticking to our resolutions is the fear of stepping out of our comfort zones. Check out my post on how to step out of your personal comfort zone.
Try these other techniques to set successful New Year’s resolutions:
Brainstorm what you want to achieve. Start by looking at what you actually want to get done this year. Do you want to improve your financial situation? Do you want to obtain a degree? You can look beyond this current year as well, if you have greater aspirations. Do you want to buy a new home in 2 years, or change careers before you turn 30?
Map out the achievements you wish to accomplish. Brainstorm everything – every detail that really matters to you. Put this information down on paper so you can review it regularly.
Turn these aspirations into long-term goals. Now that you know where you want to be, you can derive some measurable goals accordingly. These will be your resolutions. If you want to buy a home in two years, what can you achieve this year? An example may be to “Put $5,000 into savings towards a down payment.”
Break your long-term goals into monthly goals. Break each of your resolutions into specific monthly achievements. For example, if your resolution is to put $5,000 into your savings account for a down payment on a home, a monthly goal may be to put $400 away each month or $200 from each paycheck.
Choose monthly goals that are easy to obtain but help you work your way toward you’re your resolution goals. Try not to set your monthly goals beyond your capabilities. Setting savings goals beyond what you can reasonably afford, for example, will not help you achieve your goal.
Use the SMART system when setting your goals. These are goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Rather than set a vague goal to “save money this year,” you’ll want to have specific and measurable goals with time limits or deadlines in place. “Put $200 into my savings account every pay period this year” is a much more obtainable goal.
Create stepping stone goals. These are enabling goals that help you obtain your longer-term objectives. Some long-term goals lend themselves better to short-term goals than others.
Following the same example resolution as before, an enabling goal may be to “Work 40 hours every week in January” or “Cut my entertainment budget by $50 in January and put this money into my savings account.”
Get started today. The sooner you begin to plan out your New Year’s resolutions, the sooner you’ll be able to start reaching goals and achieving objectives. Get started on your goal-setting strategy today.
You can set New Year’s resolutions that drive results and you can benefit from them in each day of your year. These techniques will help you get the most out of your goal setting strategy so you can attain the life you desire.
Is your New Year’s resolution important to you? Are you committed to it? If you take your New Year’s resolution seriously, create reasonable goals, and follow these tips, you can achieve it! It will require a consistent effort on your behalf and some hard work, but it’ll all be worth it when you accomplish that resolution.
When your goal begins to seem out of reach, to regain your motivation, envision what your life will be like after you reach your resolution. Your life will be better, you’ll be happier, and you’ll have a sense of pride knowing that you’ve worked hard to accomplish your New Year’s resolutions.
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