Four Tips That Will Help You Stick to Your New Years Resolutions

Lose weight. Eat healthy. Grow your business. Quit smoking. What’s your resolution?

With 2017 upon us and New Year’s Resolutions fresh in our minds, we have to ask ourselves, how can we set ourselves up to follow through and accomplish our goals? You don’t want to fall into the same cycle of making resolutions and then failing to see them through. With that in mind and the whole year ahead of us, let’s take a look at some tips to help stay focused and goal-oriented!

Access Your Current Situation

The best thing to do before starting to set your goals is to take stock and figure out where you stand. It’s hard to tell how far you’ve come if you don’t know where you started!  Knowing your current numbers is crucial to being able to measure your success along the way. So take the time at the start to see what your current situation looks like, and it will be much easier to envision what you want, while being able to measure your success along the way.

Set  Clear Goals

After you’ve figured out where you stand, you can begin to make S.M.A.R.T. goals for yourself and increase your chance of success in 2017.  S.M.A.R.T. stands for – Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Trackable. These goals will be based off your 2016 numbers and will show you what numbers you need to hit to increase your business a given percentage, year over year. Action-oriented goals will tell you exactly what you need to improve. Figuring out what areas of your life you need to improve will help you focus your energy on the right things.

Write Your Goals Down

According to a 2007 study, writing down your goals contributed to a 42% increase in goal achievement. The study also found that those who were held accountable to their goals were even more successful. Participants who formulated action commitments and sent their goals, action commitments and weekly progress reports to a supportive friend were the most successful at achieving their desired results. So get out your pen and paper, jot down where you are and where you want to be, and tell someone! Getting yourself an accountability partner to help you along the way is even better!

Get Organized

Your time should be the most valuable thing. You want to manage your time well so that you can be both effective at work, and at home with your family. Get a grip on your calendar by designating specific times to work on your goals. Want to lose weight? Set aside one hour per day for physical activity. Once you get your schedule and calendar nailed down, stick to it!

So get going on those resolutions, and be SMART about how you tackle them. Without the right plan in place for success, you risk falling back into your old ways. With a solid foundation you’ll know where you are, where you’re going, and how you’ll get there. Using these tactics, you’ll be able to knockout this year’s goals and set even higher ones for next year!

By: Michael Johnson

 

Sources:

https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.php

http://www.irunurun.com/written-goals/

http://www.goalband.co.uk/goal-achievement-facts.html

http://www.dominican.edu/academics/ahss/undergraduate-programs/psych/faculty/assets-gail-matthews/researchsummary2.pdf