Write it on your heart that every day is the
best day in the year." — Ralph
Waldo
I'm a big fan of New Year's resolutions. "New Year's
resolutions" are yearly goals that we set for ourself at the beginning
of a new year. We usually have to do with fitness, saving money, education,
etc.
Every
year we learn many things, commit many mistakes, enjoy a lot of moments and
have some not so good experiences as well,sometimes tragic ones,but at the end
of year, we again start planning for the new year.
People
often make New Year's resolutions at the beginning of the year but don't end up
keeping them.
That
used to happen to me too. But this year i am getting serious about my new year
resolutions and going to use
5 steps
to achieving these.
some of
the techniques that I'm describing below, which will be beneficial for you as
well.
1. Only pick
three goals
We
should have one really important goal that we're going to
achieve no matter what. We can set two other goals to work toward as well. Just
remember to decide which goal is our "main" one.
Why am
I being so restrictive? Because if we try to do more than three things at once,
there are chances we'll get lost. We'll lost track of what's most important.
We'll start to neglect one of our goals, and then we'll feel guilty about it. Soon
we'll start to lose confidence in ourself.
So
stick with one main resolution and two secondary ones.
2. Write the
resolutions down and post them somewhere
Think
of a single word to represent each of our resolutions. Write the word in big
letters and post it somewhere in the home.
For
example, if we want to lose weight, we can make a sign with the word
"thin". Hang it on our refrigerator, so that every time we get food
we'll be reminded of our resolution.
Don't
just we should write resolutions down quietly, though. Announce them to our family and
friends. Put them on Facebook page. Make copies of the resolution to hang in
office and home. The more reminders, the better.
3. Turn each
resolution into a habit
Now
that we've chosen a goal, find something that we can do every day to
work toward it. Working on our resolutions every single day is very, very
effective.
If we
do something every day, it becomes a habit. Soon we won't even
think about it; we'll just do it naturally, like brushing our teeth.
4. Work on one
habit per month
To
achieve an important goal, we'll probably need to pick up several good habits.
For example, to get in shape we'll need to exercise, cut down on our drinking,
eat more vegetables, and so on.
If we
try to pick up a lot of good habits at once, we're probably going to fail. It's
just too hard to focus.
Instead,go
for one good habit per month. After we've gotten used to the first one, we can
then add the next one, and so on. For example,
if we want to save more money
this year, we can add habits like this:
· January:
Write down our expenses each day
· February:
Make our own lunvh each day
· March:
Sell one used item from our home each day on the Internet
...and
so on.
5. Use a
calendar
A few
years ago, I heard about the Jerry Seinfeld
calendar technique.
The way
it works is simple: get a calendar to put on the wall. Every day that we keep
up our good habits, mark the day with an "X" on the calendar. Then
try not to miss any days.
Seeing
all of the hard work marked on the calendar will motivate us to continue
working hard every day.
Review:
To
review, here's how we can make New Year's resolutions this year and really keep
them:
- Pick one main resolution and one or two secondary ones.
- Write your resolutions down and post them in easy-to-see places.
- Find a way to work on our resolutions every day.
- Start just one new habit per month.
- Keep track of our progress on a calendar....
So what
are your resolutions going to be? Something related to.....? What are you going
to do each day to achieve your goals???
With warm regards and great best wishes for your
success, I wish you a happy, healthy, prosperous, outstanding new year as you
adopt these New Year's resolutions and add a few more of your own…..
