How many of you keep your New Year’s resolutions?
There are more broken New Year’s Resolutions than ones completed, and the reasons for not keeping them are often pretty pathetic. By the end of January of any given year so many resolutions are forgotten because people are now back at work or back at school with the daily routine kicking back in, these resolutions has little chance of making it to first base and no chance at all of becoming an out of the ballpark home run because it is suffocated by life.
How does a person keep a resolution?
Here are 4 ways to help you keep to your resolution not just at New Year but any time of Year:
Make it fun
Fun things are things that a person looks forward to. Making your New Year’s Resolution fun makes it something you look forward to. Find the feel the happiness of a new healthier you when you stop smoking, feel the extra cash in your pocket. Find the fun in getting fit and healthy, making new friends, just feeling better.
Set yourself a resolution that is fun, something you have always wanted to do such as skydiving or climbing in the Andes or even learning to play golf. A fun thing is easier to imagine and easier to believe. Because it is fun you will want to do it and thus you have a greater chance of achieving it.
A dream board
Being able to imagine your resolution happening is made easier when you can see it. Life coaches and motivational experts the world over encourage people to create a dream board. Do the same for your New Year’s resolution. The dream board of your resolution(s) should be placed somewhere you can see it each and every day, this will keep you focused and keep the resolution alive. Place it in a place where others can see it too, when they ask what it is don’t feel embarrassed, tell them and tell them it’s where it is because you want to and will do it.
Share your resolution
Accountability is part of the success of achieving anything and is the measure of success itself. Whether your resolution is to quit smoking or swim with sharks off the coast of South Africa, share it. Sharing your resolution will drive you to succeed, firstly you won’t want to let the person you told down and thus letting yourself down is a non-starter, secondly the person you share with may want to join you or may find a way to encourage you.
Plan your resolution
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Having a plan for your New Year’s resolution is essential; each practical step you need to take each day must be documented. Once a step is completed check it off and move on to the next and then repeat this until your resolution or goal is complete.
These 4 simple steps help keep you on track and help you complete your resolution but surely a New Year’s resolution doesn’t just have to be made at the beginning of a year? Just because it’s the beginning of a new year doesn’t mean it is the only time you can resolve to do something. Every day is the chance to do something new, every day is a chance to start afresh. Using the four simple steps any resolution or plan can be achieved, sometimes even not planning and being totally spontaneous makes for some of the best life events. Perhaps being spontaneous was a New Year’s Resolution, if so do so.
Life is too short to waste, often your New Year’s resolutions are dreams, some are challenges and others are life changing. Either way you need to get up there, get out there and do it. Don’t just make your New Year’s resolution something you say just because it’s a “tradition” as new year just as the not completing it is, make it happen, make it real and add a few extras in each day just because you can. Make your New Year’s Resolution one that changes your life completely.
