Five Tips to Achieving your New Year’s Resolutions

As the year draws to the end and we begin thinking about our hopes, dreams and desires for the new year.  Many of us will have New Year’s resolutions – commitments to achieve a goal or goals during the new year.  There’s something motivating and inspiring about committing to make changes at the beginning of a brand-new year. 

Every January, I contend with the crowds at my gym, all the new faces eager to follow through on their resolutions to lose weight, eat healthier and get back into shape.  Sadly, very few of those new faces are around by the end of February.  Losing your determination and motivation is common for all of us.  Here are the statistics for the resolutions maintained as year goes on:

• Past the first week: 75%
• Past two weeks: 71%
• After one month: 64%
• After six months: 46%

Let’s commit to make the new year, different and together let’s follow through and achieve our resolutions.  To ensure our success we need to do something different from what we done in the past.  Here are some tips to ensure we reach our resolutions:

1) Limit the Number of Resolutions

Focus on fewer resolutions at one time, having too many goals can potentially be overwhelming impacting your ability as well as your motivation to achieve any of them.  A good number of resolutions to focus on would be three to five. 

Prioritize your goals by comparing them one by one.  Imagine you have four goals.  Consider goals one and two.   If you could only do one of them, which is most important to you?   Now take the “winner” – let’s say it’s goal one – and compare it to the next goal on your list.   Is goal one still the winner, or is it less important than goal three?   Go through this process until all of your goals are prioritized in their order of importance to you. 

2) Making Your Resolutions Yours

Why do you want that resolution?  What does it mean to you to achieve it?   How will you feel when you do achieve it?   If you don’t have very clear answers to those questions, there’s a high probability you don’t want to achieve it strongly enough to maintain your efforts over the year.  You have to want it desperately enough to pay the price in time and effort to achieve your resolution even in face of obstacles and challenges.  Have a clear understanding about the significance of your resolutions.  If you don’t it will be easy for you to find an excuse to not follow through and let it fall by the wayside. 

3) Write Them Down 

Taking the time to write down your resolutions will help you be clear about them.   Make a commit to do this immediately after you read this post.  If you don’t write down your resolutions, they will remain vague ideas. Vague ideas equal vague plans which produce unclear results.  You may not be able to define your resolutions at one setting schedule time to complete the job.  Be SMART when you record them.

• S – Specific.  Make your goal or objective as specific as possible. Say exactly what you want to achieve in clear, concise words.
• M – Measurable. Include a unit of measure in your goal something that would allow you to gauge your progress. Be objective rather than subjective.
• A – Attainable. Be realistic. Make sure your goal is feasible in terms of the resources available to you. You want to grow personally, but be reasonable about how far you can stretch or you’ll set yourself up for disappointment.
• R – Results-oriented. Focus on the end results you desire rather than the activities necessary to get there.
• T – Time-phased. Give yourself a deadline within a year. Be specific to the very day if you can.

4) Review Your Resolutions 

Periodically review your resolutions to check your progress.  See where you are and make course corrections as needed to ensure you stay on course toward your goal.  Do this frequently, at least monthly, to help you stay on track.  Even if you don’t achieve 100% of your resolutions by the end of the year, you will achieve at least 70% to 80% of them.  That’s beats giving up on your resolutions which equals to achieving only 0%.  Place your resolutions where you can see them everyday.

5) Share Your Resolutions

Don’t keep your resolutions a secret.  After you have written down your resolutions, let your family and friends know about them.  Share them with family members and friends who know will be a source of support and encouragement over the next year.  Making yourself publicly accountable for your own results will give you added incentive to follow through. 

Conclusion

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way making the next year, a great year!  And if you have a truly serious goal don’t wait until New Year’s start it today!

About the author

Gerardo Campbell is a Nebraska native who now calls Silicon Valley, California home. In 1995, Gerardo married his wife Roberta aka the Pretty Lady and became the stepdad to her two children. In 2011, he started the website Support for Stepfathers in an effort to reverse the nearly 70% divorce rate for blended families in the United States. His website is to help and inspire stepfathers, aspiring stepfathers and the women who love them worldwide. You can follow Support for Stepdads on Twitter @support4stepdad and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/resourcesforstepfathers.

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