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10 Tips for Making New Year Resolutions

A big goal sounds impressive, but is hard to achieve. Start by setting small goals so you begin to understand how you can best achieve results. Once you have a few successes under your belt and understand your potential, take a step up to a bigger goal.

Start Small

We all need help to maintain our motivation. Set your goals so that you can celebrate the small achievements along the way. Short sprints are much more effective and enjoyable than a long, slow slog.

Reward Yourself

Nobody is perfect. Life has a habit of getting in the way of New Year resolutions. Accept this as normal and don’t aim for perfection all of the time. Think in advance what setbacks you may encounter and how you can mitigate them.

Plan for Setbacks

Measuring, recording and sharing your progress are all positive steps that will support your achievement. If your progress has been good, it provides positive reinforcement to keep going. If you have fallen behind, take some time to reflect on why and what you can do to improve.

Check Your Progress

Think ahead about things that may tempt you to stray from your path and try to get them out of your life, at least for a while. This could include staying away from people who reinforce your bad habits, removing sugary foods from the cupboard or avoiding certain activities.

Remove Temptation

Your New Year’s Resolutions should be based on actions that are obvious. Vowing to get fit or lose weight are quite vague, instead try to commit to walking to work twice per week or not drinking sugary drinks.

Make it Real

You can’t do everything all at once. Your willpower is a finite resource so ration it for the goals that count and let some other things go. Recent research shows that willpower can be increased with positive attitude. Perhaps achieving some small goals will help you to improve your willpower.

Manage Your Willpower

Set simple goals that can easily be measured along the way. Understand what will help you to achieve your goal and reinforce those behaviours. Keeping it simple also makes it harder to wiggle out of your commitment due to a technicality.

Simple Beats Complex

Your goal should be measurable. Consider how and when you will measure your progress and how it will be recorded.

Be Specific

Improve your chances of achieving them by recording, tracking and sharing them at:

www.PromiseLocker.com

Serious About Your New Year Resolutions?