Tips & Tricks to Make New Year's Resolutions Stick!

“Many people fail in life,” Elbert Hubbard says, “not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organised their energies around a goal."

The resolutions we make as the New Year dawns usually involve resolves to improve our lifestyle—whether that means losing weight, gaining a job, going back to school or improving a relationship.

Breaking New Year’s resolutions is almost proverbial.

Here are some tips and tricks from making and keeping them!

Examine Where You Have Been

What have you accomplished this last year?  What do you wish you had accomplished but didn’t?  Often the year passes month by month and we don’t see the larger picture.  Take time to record how you used your time, opportunity and energy.  What did you do with or for your faith, fitness, finances, family?  How did you spend your leisure time?  How healthy is your spiritual, financial, social, emotional and family life?  Could you improve in any of those areas?

By taking time to review the past year you allow yourself to gain perspective on where you have been and insight into where you want to go.

Decide on some goals to accomplish this year

What end result do you want to have accomplished in the above mentioned areas by the end of the year?  It could be to work daily exercise into your lifestyle or to earn more money.  Whatever it is write it down. 

“In order to do something new,” M.J. Ryan explains, “you will have to get clear on why you are willing to expend all that energy.”

Writing down goals helps us clarify them in our minds.

But beware how you phrase the goal!

“Trying consciously to remove a negative mental image or habit,” M.J. Ryan says, “actually reinforces it.  That’s because if you give yourself a command such as ‘Don’t think of donuts,” there’s actually a part of the brain that is trying to obey by constantly scanning (“Are you thinking about donuts now?  How about now?”), which of course results in you constantly thinking about everything you’ve vowed not to. 

“But if you create a positive image of what you want to go toward, that’s what the brain begins scanning for instead.”

Plan How to Accomplish Your Goal

Here’s the part where most goals fizzle away into oblivion.  Application.  That’s because what many people think of as a ‘goal’ is actually a wish.  A desire without an action plan. 

Here are some links to help you turn your wish into a goal.

HelpGuide.org contains a wealth of articles to help you improve the quality of your life.  Articles outline simple steps to accomplish your big objectives.  Subjects include family life, healthy living, mental and emotional health.

Smart Goal Defined: This article defines what the elements of a S.M.A.R.T goal contain.

This Year I Will...: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True by M.J. Ryan (book)

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield (book)

Get out of your Way!

“By pretending to be someone who has mastered the habit you want to acquire,” M.J. Ryan tells us, “you get out of your way, and accomplish it.”

Summary

 “We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand…and melting like a snowflake.  Let us use it before it’s too late.” –Marie Beynon