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3 Tips to Make Your New Years Resolutions Stick By Andrew Peacock

March 2, 2010 | admin | Self Improvement, Success

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3 Tips to Make Your New Years Resolutions Stick By Andrew Peacock

It’s that time of year again; the time we decide to lose weight, get fit, sort out our finances, work harder, and all those other things we promise ourselves every year and manage to adhere to for about a week at most. But why is it that New Years Resolutions are so frequently broken, and what can you do about it this year?

THE ‘WHEN’

Well, the key issue as I see it is when we make these life-changing decisions. When you try to change yourself so drastically (because let’s face it, New Years Resolutions are rarely minor shifts in our behaviour), you are doing so because of a date on a calendar. You’re not driven by some powerful emotional event. You’re not driven by a definite goal at some point in the future. You’re doing it because it’s the first of January.

And just how motivating is that?

THE ‘WHAT’

Secondly, there’s rarely any thought put into the resolution itself. There are certain resolutions that crop up again and again. To lose weight. To get fit. To stop drinking. To stop smoking. To get out of debt. Often, people decide these things because that’s what they resolved to do last year. Or because it’s just expected of them. Again, there’s often no real thought put into picking a resolution that fits into alignment with the real-world hopes and plans that people have for the coming year.

THE ‘HOW’

The writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery said “A goal without a plan is just a wish”, and that’s our third point. Setting a goal like “I’m going to lose weight” doesn’t take into account how much weight, the deadline attached, or how you’re going to do it. Again, this entails a bit of thought - more thought than most people put into their resolutions. There is a huge difference between losing 10lbs and losing 10 stone. There is also a huge difference between losing weight through exercise as compared to dieting or surgery. Without putting some thought into the means by which you’ll achieve your resolution, it’s unlikely that you’ll achieve it.

THE SOLUTION

So the question is: how can you more faithfully stick to your New Years Resolutions this year? Well - that’s a fantastic question. It leads you to actually *thinking* about the process of setting and sticking to resolutions, and by thinking about it, you might come up with some ideas. Additionally, the three points above are indicators of what to do:

1. Pick resolutions that are not just “New Years Resolutions”, but real, personal, thought out-goals.

2. Be specific about the details of the goal - how much weight will you lose? By when? How?

3. The final point is to set personal resolutions at times other than New Year, but that’s a topic for another time and another article.

New Year needn’t be a time where you hide away from the world because you’re ashamed of talking about the same resolutions as you made last year. By changing the way you approach resolutions, you’ll make it much more likely that you’ll succeed this time round.

For specific advice on how to work with your resolutions in a way that makes it almost guaranteed you’ll succeed, see the 23-page report covering the questions I use during my annual review, free of charge, athttp://www.empowering-questions.com