At this time of year, you may be pondering making a New Year’s resolution. Perhaps you’ve made them before and lost interest over time.

Perhaps you buckled down and followed through. In any case, you’re about to embark on a new year.

Even if you weren’t thrilled with your follow-through in previous years, the new year offers incredible possibilities to challenge yourself in a variety of ways.

Try These Tips To Help You Create Your Successful Resolutions:

1. Identify an area of your life that matters to you. One of the most important aspects of making New Year’s resolutions is to choose a goal that is actually meaningful.

Ideally, you’ll be able to find something you really desire. This will help you stay dedicated.

2. Be specific. The idea of establishing a New Year’s resolution can appear overly simplistic.

People often state, “My New Year’s resolution is to get in shape” or “I want to work less.”

What do statements like “I want to spend more time with my family this coming year” actually mean?

Here’s how to get more specific:

• To strengthen the resolve, consider providing more specific details.
• Consider committing to precise goals, such as “I will lose 2 inches from my waist and 3 inches from my hips.”
• For instance, “I will increase visual muscle definition in my abdominals and upper arms.”

It is important to use I will statements rather than I want. When you use “I want” statements, you are looking into the future, whereas using “I will ” statements means you have already accomplished that resolution. Your subconscious will then work to make it real!

3. Make your resolutions measurable. How will you assess your achievements?

To spend more time with family, consider reducing work hours or eliminating Saturday work beginning January 1st.

4. Organize your resolution into mini-goals. Consider breaking down your overarching aim into smaller, independent goals.

Select the first mini-goal to complete in the process and make it your New Year’s resolution for the first three months.

Consider the following example:

You want to drop thirty pounds. You’ve battled to lose weight in the past. But you want to go serious now.

One approach is to break this down into smaller goals:

Lose ten pounds in the first three months of the year, another ten pounds in the second quarter, and the remaining ten pounds in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter of the year, focus on maintaining your weight loss.

5. Be practical. You may not be able to complete all of your goals in a single year. However, if your New Year’s resolution is reasonable, you should be well on your way to achieving it by the end of the year.

What’s Important to You?

When making New Year’s resolutions, consider what is most important to you.

Be explicit and measurable in your resolutions. Use mini-goals and be realistic about your resolutions.

You’ll be far more successful if you approach your resolution as a process rather than a goal.

And after you’ve accomplished one goal, you’re more likely to make and keep other resolutions in the coming years.

Begin this year to make each year your best!

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