How To Stick To Your New Year Resolutions

After having some time off over the Christmas and New Year Holidays, many of us start thinking about our goals for the coming year. A lot of us have made New Year Resolutions, as something we set out to achieve in the New Year. How do I know? Because in the past years I have made many of them….and have (conveniently) forgotten about them half way through the year……

The question is, and perhaps for many of us; “how do I actually stick to my new year resolutions and make them work for me?”

Well, and I’m not proud to say this, but every year I get very enthusiastic about my goals and resolutions, and by March – April these goals are a distant memory. It got me thinking though; what makes somebody actually stick to their goals? I would really like to make a difference this year, and instead of ‘drifting’ through the year, follow some clear goals and stick to them for once.

So, me being me, I decided to do a bit of research on this subject to give myself (and maybe others) a bit of a guideline so to speak. I came up with 3 small steps that will increase our success rate for achieving our goals;

Emotional Connection To Your Goals

When we set goals for ourselves we often only use our heads, and our heads will often just think logic. By thinking about your goals in your head, you will often ‘plan’ out your goals without feeling it in your gut. It may just seem like the right goal to have because its something that you think (in your head) you really need to do. However, if you don’t feel this in your heart and your gut, changes of achieving your goal will be slim. This is an emotional connection you make with your goals.

For example; I remember, in my younger days, I really wanted to win this running race. A popular girl in school had been winning all the races, year after year, and she happened to be a real ‘bully’ as well. She was always picking on me and I was just fed up with this. I felt that by beating her in the running race, I would be just as popular as she was and she would stop teasing me. Well, I did win that running race, I won because I wanted to win so badly; I made an emotional connection to win that race. The girl moved away the following summer and I haven’t won a running race since

Realistic Goals

Often we get really enthusiastic about our goals ( maybe on new years eve after finishing a bottle of wine) and we get too ambitious. We think of all these great things we should and could be doing. Like losing 10 kilo’s in one week before your wedding or like training for a Marathon within a couple of weeks. These goals are too ambitious as we just don’t know where to start. It soon feels too over-whelming and we put our goal in the; ‘too hard to do’ basket and quit.

Break Your Goals Down Into Small Steps

By breaking your goal(s) down into small steps it will be less over-whelming. It helps to write your goal down at the top of a piece of paper, underneath this you can break your goal down into smaller tasks. You can do 1 task each day, or 1 each week, this will help you focus on achieving your goal one step at the time.

Goal setting is so important for achieving success in all areas in your life and it is definitely something I would like to look into a lot more in the coming year. I personally feel that I haven’t done enough of this and, I guess, I am curious to find out how much “goal-setting” is going to help me. In both my career and my personal life.

What is the 1 goal you would like to achieve this year?

Love,

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
- Bill Cosby