Lifestyle / How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolution

How To Keep Your New Year’s Resolution

Lifestyle Jan 13, 2014

by Yvonne Sinniah

Setting and achieving New Year’s Resolutions can be quite the daunting task for many.

Thirty-five percent of us who make New Year's resolutions break them by the end of January. And only 23 percent of everyone who makes a resolution will see it through to completion.

Are you part of the 77 percent who make resolutions only to find you've given up before you ever really got started?

Let's look into the key principles in setting goals and resolutions for the New Year so you can be set up for success. By taking the SMART principles that are used in the business world, readers can use guidelines to outline their goals and dreams for the year that can be successfully realized.

How to Craft Successful New Year’s Resolutions

Don’t give up on the idea of making resolutions, just learn how to be smart when creating them. This year, try using the SMART criteria (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) to craft resolutions that stick. Many successful organizations use these principles to set a path towards achieving those goals. Use these principles to set your life in the direction you dream.

Specific:

When creating goals, you must be specific about what you hope to gain. You cannot achieve a goal if you’re not sure what the outcome will look like. For example, if your New Year’s resolution is: “to achieve happiness”, it will be difficult for you to quantify any results or to know when you’ve reached your goal. If your resolution is: “improve my relationship with my children”, you’re on your way to having a much clearer idea of what you’re looking to accomplish and how you’re going to get there. A great way to start crafting a specific goal is to consider which arenas in your life you would like to see changes in (romantic relationships, friendships, career, health, financial, etc.), and use them as a starting point.

Measurable:

When thinking about your resolutions this year, make sure they are measurable by creating objectives that can be charted. How will you know you have achieved that goal/ resolution? For example, instead of resolving to: “get better at golf”, make your resolution to: “Improve your golf score 10 strokes”. Or instead of stating that you want to “lose weight”, state measurable results such as “ lose two inches off my waist”.

Achievable:

Ask yourself: “How can I achieve this goal?” and write down all the answers that come to mind. Then, break down the overall goal into smaller steps and for each intermediate step create goal-tasks. Do this by writing down the first action that comes to mind, and then the next, and the next, and so on. Now, these smaller tasks will be things you can easily act upon. Make sure you are as thorough as possible because a poorly defined activity can overwhelm you and cause a roadblock. This initial frustration will hinder your progress and discourage you from going any further. Remember these are your dreams and your goals, own it and achieve it step by step.

Realistic:

Ensure your goals align with your life as it is right now; not as you wish it could be. Contemplate whether or not you will actually be able to execute the actions necessary to achieve your goal, and write down any barriers that might exist to stop you. The more realistic the goals you create, the more likely you will be to actually achieve them. If there are real barriers that exist like time, finances, physical barriers, etc. that you know will likely remain through the coming year, adapt your resolutions to fit with your life as it exists right now.

Timely:

In order to be successful with your resolutions, you must give your goal a deadline. More often than not, you will be more productive if you give yourself a timeline that jump-starts the year. Try to either plan to achieve your goals in the first 3-6 months, or break a yearlong goal into 3 – 4 mini goals so that you can see the end of each milestone within a few months. When you feel like procrastinating, remember this: It takes just a little momentum to carry you through a successful day and one step closer to reaching your goals. Yes it takes discipline, and yes, you will have your good days and your bad. To find success, you must focus on the reason you have decided to make this resolution and remember that every small action you take is bringing you one step closer.

Resolutions are a great way to assure growth in your life and to ensure that you are consistently striving to do and live better. Take this time to set some New Year's resolutions and conquer them so you are living your best self this year.

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Yvonne Sinniah

Author

Yvonne Sinniah (@YvonneSinniah) is a Relations Advisor and inspirational speaker focusing on helping individuals achieve success in personal and professional environments. focusing on helping individuals achieve success in personal and professional environments. She is on a mission to meet a nee...

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