Another New Year’s Resolution or Your Goals Accomplished ?

It seems like every January 1st people make resolutions.
Perhaps you’ve even made a resolution-
To be healthier and lose weight,
To save more money and pay off your debt
To spend more time with your family instead of always being at work. 

The only problem is by February 1st, life has gotten in your way. 
You’ve been too busy at work to spend more time with the kids,
be healthier, or clean out the garage.

The reason why people don’t reach their goals
​ is that every day they make little decisions that move them further away instead of closer to their goals.

So how can you stay on track and make sure you are making decisions to accomplish your goals? 

1- Write down your goals 
If your goal is to be healthier write down that you want to be healthier and why. The why will help you remember how important the goal is and provide you with motivation. If your goal is to be healthier and your why is to be able see your child get married; This “why” will be helpful to read when you are struggling to make better food choices or having to exercise when you’re tired.

2- Prepare for Success
Goals get accomplished because there was preparation. If getting fit is a priority then the preparation should include having a bag of workout clothes ready to go the day before you plan to workout. Think about what you need to buy, have on hand or get together in order for you to be prepared to accomplish your goals. 

3- Make a plan- write out the steps
Write out a plan for each goal and include the action steps with deadlines. Be sure it includes all the steps so you can be successful.
For example, if you want to read a book this year- the first step isn’t reading chapter 1. The first step is finding the book, the second step is getting the book and the third step is reading chapter 1.

4- Connect & Automate
Connect your new activity to something you already do so it becomes automatic.
For example, if your new activity is going for a walk and you drop off the kids every day at practice. You could connect the new activity of walking to follow right after you drop off the kids. Whatever the new behavior connect it to something you already do to make it automatic.

5- Review and track
Review your goals and plans each and every week and track daily when applicable.
For instance, if you are working on being healthier- track the number of times you worked out, ate healthy meals and how much water you drank.
​Once a week, review your goals and reflect on how you are doing. Celebrate your successes and for your misses look at what you can do differently next week to make it happen.

For even more success create monthly and quarterly goals.
This way it gives you time to get back on track when life throws you a curve ball.
For instance, if you want to be healthier and you say you will exercise 5 times a week but it’s already Wednesday and you haven’t worked out yet, you may not make that goal and may get discouraged. Instead if you set your exercise goal for 20 times in a month, even if you get off track at the beginning of the month there is still time to be successful.

Whatever your goal- if you want it, you can make it happen.