Make Authentic New Year‘s Resolutions and Keep Them

Half of us fail, but that won‘t be you

Making new year‘s resolutions has tremendous value just as other goal setting efforts but becomes nothing more than a air-filled balloon if not laid out in a manner that maximizes your potential for results.  Those who make new year‘s resolutions are ten times more likely to reach their goals than those who don‘t, but unfortunately more than half fail to keep them *.  Which half will you belong to?

I will give up smoking, stop indulging my sweet tooth, lose 20 pounds and stop being so disorganized!

That‘s great but let’s take a step back, take one resolution at a time and set it forth in a positive and a fun way focusing on benefits instead of restraints. 

1. You start by getting excited about realizing your dreams and adopting a positive mindset towards your journey and your goal.  Don‘t let anything or anyone stop you.  Your dreams and goals are yours and yours only and have nothing to do with what others want for you.
2. Your next step is to write down your vision relating to your resolution and how you feel as if you have reached your goal and/or reached your dream situation. 
3. It is important, before writing your action plan, to describe in writing your situation as it is today and how you feel about it.

Now, you have a rough outline of where you are, where you are going and the potential benefits of travelling to and reaching that destination so let’s move on to organizing and planning your journey.

A SMART new year‘s resolution

We make the new year‘s resolution specific by writing down exactly what you are going to do, why and how.

I will adopt a healthy diet to increase my energy, health and fitness and I will do it by only eating delicious, wholesome and beautiful real food.

We make it measurable by creating our goal specific scale and describing our major milestones.

I will measure my success by the number of delicious, wholesome and beautiful meals I have eaten and revamping my breakfast routine will be the first milestone.  My mid-morning snack is the next and I will keep on going until all meals are equally healthy.

Next is to make your resolution attainable, by considering what assistance and resources you might need.

 I will try to get my family involved but won‘t let anyone‘s disinterest stop me.  I will allow myself more time for cooking, meal preparation and recipe hunting.

When the frame has been built, you create a realistic plan and list your order of execution.  Finally, you time your milestones and set a date of completion for your final goal.

Negotiate with family in week one, recipe hunting in week two through week four, delicious and healthy breakfast every day from week five and so on.

Making new year‘s resolutions is not about putting on a straitjacket and testing our willpower.  New year‘s resolutions, as any other goals, are intended to bring us closer to your authentic selves, our dreams and the life we want to live.

What new year‘s resolution are you going to make?

*Auld Lang Syne: Success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year’s resolvers and nonresolvers, by John C. Norcross, Marci S. Mrykalo, Matthew D. Blagys , University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Volume 58, Issue 4 (2002).

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