Top 5 ways to Guaranteed New Year's Resolution Success in 2018

2018 will soon arrive and with it a flurry of resolutions that traditionally will be abandoned with in days or weeks.

Gym membership cards will lie abandoned on the bedside cabinet.

Ingredients for bizarre weight loss diets will dry-out and rot in cupboards and fridges.

Novels with no more than the first chapter written will clutter hard-drives.

Why can’t we stick to our resolutions?

In my experience it’s for two main reasons:

The goals that we set ourselves are too ambitious – ‘I’m going to lose three stone in weight by easter’ or ‘I’ll go to the gym for an hour everyday’ or ‘I’ll complete an 80,000 word novel in three months (If Stephen King can, why can’t I?)

We set multiple goals that combined make all of our goals unrealistic. Most people don’t just want to lose weight. They also want to get fit, learn to crochet/paint/surf as well as holding down a full-time job and looking after a family. That combination is very difficult if not impossible.

If we are to stand a chance of sticking to our resolutions and completing what we set out to do we need to adopt the following five strategies to ensure success.

Think about what you view as your main challenge, the one part of your life that you’d like to change. What do you need to do to make your life better in 2018? It might be weight loss, building a better body at the gym, learning a new skill, becoming more productive, writing a book, setting up your own business. When you have identified that single part of you that you would like to change, that is your goal for this year. If you want a second resolution (I don’t recommend that you do) then divide the year in two and work on one for six months and the second in the next six months.

Look at your resolution. How passionate are you about this change you want to make to your life? What is your why? i.e. Why is it so important? Why is this the right time to be losing weight/getting fit/learning to surf? If you don’t follow through on this resolution what are the consequences to you? If abandoning working towards your goal has no consequences to you, then it isn’t the right goal for now.

Draw up a plan, a road map of how you are going to achieve your chosen resolution. For example: Losing weight

What is your target weight?

What is the date you want to have achieved this by?

How many pounds per week does this equate to?

What strategies are you putting in place to achieve this target?

Exercising – What form? How much per week

Food choices? Low carb? No processed foods? Are these sustainable (Don’t diet, make long term lifestyle changes instead)?

What rewards are you planning for yourself as you succeed? Spa day? Weekend away? See a show in London?

Set targets. If your goal doesn’t have a time frame and isn’t measurable, it is just a desire, not a goal. It needs to have a finite date that you are working towards. Don’t make the deadline too tough – it needs to be compatible with all of the other demands in your life. However, don’t make the target too soft – this is a challenge, it is supposed to show you what you are capable of and to give you a feeling of pride and having succeeded in overcoming a significant hurdle that has been holding you back or not enriching your life.

Finally, achieving your goal has to be fun. If you view it from the outset as a chore or something you are doing because you have to, then you are setting yourself up to fail. Whether you want to lose weight, get fitter, write a book or college essays (try nursing assignment help right now) or learn a language it needs to be enjoyable and fit into your overall life plan in the long-term. Losing weight or getting fitter is often more fun if done with a friend or family member. Joining a writers circle to get constructive criticism and encouragement on your book writing project can often help get you beyond those periods of self-doubt.

A New Year’s resolution is supposed to be a chain around your neck that is holding you down and making you miserable but a good opportunity for you to plan and execute some ‘you’ time, doing and achieving the things you have wanted to do but never had the tools or motivation to do before.