How to Stick to Your Resolutions

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Did you make a New Year’s resolution for 2015?  Maybe you made a couple.  We’re almost one month into this year and if you are like most American’s, you are already starting to fail at your goals.  Only 8% of people actually keep their resolutions!  Here are a few tips to help you be one of those 8% this year.  It’s not too late to get back on track and make this year rock!

1) Re-evaluate your goals-  A lot of times we set a very vague resolution for the year.  “This year I am going to eat healthy” “This year I am going to exercise” “this year I am going to save more money”.  The problem with these goals is there is no way to tell if you are achieving them.  My husband is such a pain in the butt and a total goal setter.  He has taught me to set S.M.A.R.T. goals. S-specific M-measurable A-attainable R-realistic T-time based.  Instead of saying “I am going to save money this year” a better goal would be “I am going to save $1000 by June 1st”.

2) Plan and Prepare- Last month, I set a goal to drink 100 ounces of water a day.  I think I did pretty well but I am not 100% positive.  I set the same goal for this month but I can tell you, this month I am rocking it!  What did I do differently?  I bought a pitcher from the dollar store.  Seriously, it was that easy.  The pitcher is 72 ounces so all I have to do is finish that pitcher and then fill it half way and boom!  When you fail to prepare, be prepared to fail.  This is a favorite quote of mine!  If your goal is to save $1000, make a plan and prepare for it.  If your goal is to exercise this year, make a plan to go to the gym twice a week.  Pick a class and hold yourself accountable.  Whatever your goals are, you need to be prepared in order to achieve them.  You also need to plan.  I am not a fan of schedules,  I prefer to-do lists.  But when I put that to-do list into a planner and schedule out specific time for each thing, it gets done!  I highly recommend getting a planner and trying it out for the year.  You will be amazed how much more efficiently things get done.

3) Break them up- Yearly goals are easy to forget and hard to keep.  Break your goals up into monthly or weekly goals and you will be much more likely to keep them.  Skipping fast food for a week is a lot easier than skipping the drive-thru all year.  It will make your goals more manageable.

4) Accountability- Find someone to hold you accountable.  Again, my husband is a goal junkie (seriously he went around the bar on New Years’s Eve asking strangers for their goals and their emails to follow up with them! He’s crazy!) so I am lucky enough to have a built in accountability partner.  I am almost scared to tell him my goals because I know he will make me stick to them!  Find someone crazy like that and share your goals with them!  Tell your friend at the gym that you want to lose 10 pounds by December and I promise she will push you.  You will also push yourself more.  Just saying your goals out loud to someone else makes them a little more real.  And now you won’t want to let them or yourself down.

I have a lot of resolutions this year and it’s going to be easy for me to fail.  But, I also know that I can succeed.  It takes a little more work, but it is possible.  I wish you all the best and hope each of you is part of the 8% at the end of the year!

 

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