Mind-blowing New Year Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions date back thousands of years to the Babylonians, who celebrated their first barley harvest. 

Every year, millions of people make New Year’s resolutions, hoping to spark positive change. The recurring themes each year include a more active approach to health and fitness, improved finances, and learning new things for personal and professional development.

Despite the best of intentions, once the glow of a fresh new year wears off, many people struggle to make good on their plans. 

Follow this steps if you want to realize your New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Mentally prepare for change

The first breakthrough in change is taking a personal inventory. Being that it’s the end of one year and the beginning of the next, it’s perfect timing to take stock of the past year’s accomplishments. Think about the following:

1. What did I set out to do in the past year?
2. Where did I make progress?
3. Where didn’t I see progress?

Naturally, your resolution may focus on areas that lack progress, but don’t forget to savor the progress made and find some small way to celebrate. Those happy feelings are useful! If possible, try to associate them with an object or word related to your accomplishment.

You will want to keep upbeat with your new resolution, so you can use that positive association with last year’s accomplishments to remind you of those good feelings when you are feeling challenged.

As you start thinking about the changes you want to implement, make sure to do the following:

• Stay positive
• Try not to make big/quick changes
• Change should be gradual
• Build on smaller changes
• Allow a little room for error

2. Set a goal that motivates you

You would be surprised how often people set goals that are not for themselves. These goals could be dictated to or coerced by a manager, spouse, or parental/peer pressure.

While it’s nice to have some external support, if you don’t share the same passion, the resolution has a small chance of succeeding and could even be dead on arrival.

To do this, you need to make sure the goal you set is important to you and only you and that there is value or benefit for you in achieving the goal. It is these two things that will provide the reason and willingness to take action. This is also known as motivation!

Thus, it’s a safe bet if your resolutions align with the following:

• Your goals
• Your priorities
• Your dreams
• Your aspirations

Not only should you align around your innermost desires, but you should also make sure the resolutions align with your top priorities. This will lead to a “must do” attitude.

3. Limit resolutions to a manageable amount

A common mistake in resolution setting is having too many and spreading yourself too thin.  We only have so much attention span we can dedicate to self-improvement, so having too many resolutions is a great way not to achieve the many goals you have set out for yourself.

Hence, you should make a short list of resolutions that you can manage in the upcoming year. Knowing that short list of priorities is the hard part. The key here is understanding how to prioritize.

4.   Be specific

When it comes to setting resolutions, it’s easy to set bad goals that could lead to poor follow-through. Fortunately, the SMART goal-setting framework can help you craft better goals.

SMART goals are:

• Specific - Articulate the resolution as clearly as possible. For example, quitting smoking is better than being healthy. While “being healthy” is great, the wording can be interpreted in many ways.  
• Measurable - Quantify your resolution if possible, i.e., I will lose 10% of my body weight.
• Attainable - Choose a goal within the realm of possibility yet challenging. Making 100 friends this year would be amazing but probably pretty hard to do. On the other, making 10 new friends is doable.
• Relevant - Keep it relevant to your priorities and goals. See the motivation section above!
• Time-sensitive - Give yourself a time frame in which to achieve a goal. A deadline will instill some urgency and provide a time when you can celebrate your success.

5. Break up big goals into smaller goals

A lot of us tend to be over-eager and grandiose when it comes to resolutions. We have the best of intentions and may accidentally take on a goal that is too big to achieve. Thus, it’s helpful to divide a big goal into smaller goals that are more achievable.

By breaking your tactical plan into discrete steps, you now have a pretty good chance of world domination by the end of the year.

Now chunking up a big goal is easier said than done. Here are a few tips to help you make your massive goal more achievable:

• Create a list of sub-tasks
• Prioritize and order them
• Use a visual map to display
• Assign milestones to each task
• Decide how much time each task requires
• Allocate resources accordingly
• Focus on the next step, not the big goal

6. Write down your goals

While it’s great to have goals, it is critical to document them in some way. Here are six reasons to write down your goals:

1. They are easy to forget. While that may seem silly, we are human, and it is human to be easily distracted and forgetful.
2. Writing down your resolutions helps you clarify what it is you want to achieve. It forces you to make decisions and be precise with your words.
3. Writing establishes intention, but action needs to be taken to achieve your resolution. Having a written account of your goals is a constant reminder to take action.
4. Written goals can act as a filter and guiding light for what opportunities to pursue. On any given day, there are a million decisions to make. When in doubt, refer to the goals you have set to dictate the way forward.
5. Documented goals will help you overcome resistance to progress. We set goals to move forward, but there is a natural resistance to change. Your written goals spur you forward when you hit a speed bump or obstacle.
6. Finally, written goals are a reminder of how far you have come and what you have achieved. It’s a nice feeling to look back at the end of next year and know your resolution has come to fruition. It’s a reason to crack open that bottle of champagne and celebrate.

Here are a few ways you can document your resolutions for the new year:

• Write them in a journal
• Draft an email to yourself
• Store in Evernote or some other note-taking tool
• Print and tape to the wall

7. Automate where possible

A stitch in time saves nine.

The good news is you probably have technology in your pocket that can help you follow through on your resolution - automation in the form of reminder apps.

Nowadays, there are a million different apps and services to help you follow through on your resolutions. These free tools can help provide a constant reminder:

• Google Calendar: Set a recurring meeting tied to your resolution, i.e. scheduling workout sessions at the gym.
• Google Now: Personal assistant that provides information as you need it.
• Reminders (on iOS): Set up timed alerts for tasks.
• Boomerang for Gmail: Schedule reminder emails to yourself (Freemium).

On top of these commonly used apps, there are also “to-do list” and task management apps that have the ability to schedule reminders and milestones. Here are a few popular choices:

8. If you fall off track, get back on quick

Rome was not built in a day.

It will take time for your resolution to become a reality, and we know change is difficult. In fact, we’ve already established we should leave some room for mistakes and setbacks.

Keep the following ideas in mind:

• Skipping an intermediate task is not a complete failure
• Missing a goal by 10% or even 70% is not a complete failure
• Finishing a task late is not a complete failure
• A moment of weakness is meaningless in the grand scheme of things

Setbacks can happen, but so long as they are handled correctly, they will not impact the big goal. The key is to avoid a defeatist attitude at all costs , i.e., “Well, I screwed up once, why should I even try to do this anymore.”

And if there is a setback, it’s important to understand what led to that moment and how you can avoid a similar situation in the future.

Once a mistake is made, own it and move on to the next thing. For example, if you skipped a study session, make it up tomorrow, and keep on moving. A few small mistakes shouldn’t spoil your resolution for the year!

Let God be your Alpha and Omega, Jesus the pioneer and perfector of your new year. Revelations 22:13