Its that time of year when most of us will review and make New Year’s Resolutions, unfortunately research shows only 12% of people actually stick to them! Follow these simple rules below to increase your chances!
The Resolution rules…………………….
- List out your resolutions making them specific and clear. If you want to lose weight – how much weight? If you are reducing your drinking – how much a week?
- Think about what you will need to organise first so you’re ready to start with your resolutions – for example, get some workout gear you love, look at classes in your area and sign up, research your food plan, get your financial budget together in one place, get child care cover to give you time for exercise.
- Get a buddy and set up some co-support – this is one of the keys to your success. A goal buddy is powerful in helping you stay on track.
- State your resolutions in the positive and not in the negative, for example, ‘I am building savings in 2013’ is a way better than ‘I don’t want to be in debt’.
- Make only as many resolutions as you can believe you can keep. Better to stick to a few successfully than have a long list that gets all broken. Choose a few – succeed – and then go onto others you have parked when you are ready.
- Tell your friends, your family and your workmates about your goals so everyone knows and can support you – it’s harder to break your plan when everyone is cheering you on and asking how you are doing.
- Write down your goals and have them somewhere visible to keep them front of mind – on the fridge door, desk at work, in your bag, on your phone.
- Keep a daily log of how you are doing – record your successes and your failures and learn from them. Set up a chart or download an app to record your daily log.
- Be clear why you want to do each of these things. How will each goal make you feel when you succeed? It’s actually the feeling that motivates us to want to make the change
- Set a time frame to keep up the good work. Science shows us that doing anything repetitively for 21 days makes it become a habit.