6 Keys to Successful New Year Resolutions

A New Year is here. It may be time for a change. Or, time to freshen up. Perhaps try something new. Make some New Year’s resolutions, and follow these keys to improve your ‘stickability’ through 2013.

1. Resolve: Accept that you’ll have good and bad moments and days. You’ll fall off the wagon. Get back on. Resolve to start again this afternoon, or tomorrow. You’re human. Humans make errors. It’s okay. When you repeat the same error then you’ve made a mistake. Giving up at the first or second hurdle is a mistake. Nothing good in life comes easily. Don’t look for short-cuts.
2. Make a Plan: Hope is good thing when it’s in your heart, but can be tough if you’re blinded by it. Habits and routines are at the root of most things you’d like to change – hence your resolution(s). A plan provides direction and guidance. Explore strategies to uncover your routines and habits. Try ways to reinforce new habits when working to break the cycle of past habits. Try a new outlook and new approach to an old resolution. Craziness is often said to be trying to get the same results from the same (unsuccessful) ways.
3. Break it Down: Break your plan into more manageable objectives or goals, and smaller periods of time. Focus upon one or two core elements; many others will then fall into place. Focus for a day, then another; then a week, then another. Aim to progress over time, not all the time.
4. Team Up: Do your homework. Talk with many, follow few. Work with your spouse/partner, coach or mentor, and squad members. Express your resolution as something you ‘want’ to do, not ‘need’ nor ‘have’ to do. You’re more likely to find support when those important to you understand it is something you want to do. Knowing it’s valued; rather than a compulsion or burden helps. If you usually find your own way, it may be time to consider a training partner, a coach or a squad.
5. Make it public: Promise yourself. Write it down. Write a blog. Construct a FB page. Tweet it. Follow up. Yet not every detail every minute every day. The glory is yours. Keep it that way for the most part. And, honestly, no-one really wants to know what you ate for breakfast, how many kilometres you cycled, or what café you’re at right now.
6. Build in success: Reward your progress along the way. Achieve smaller goals with mini steps along your journey. Focus on what you do to achieve each step rather than the final outcome. Graph it, tabulate it, draw it, paint or photograph it. Make a collage. Put it on the fridge. Have a t-shirt made: Front: “I made a resolution…”. Back:  “It wasn’t easy. I showed resolve. Success.”